Never Will I Ever…Famous Last Words of Parenting

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Lose the Cape: Never Will I Ever (and then I had kids!) by Various Authors
Publication Date: Dec. 9, 2015
Pages: 208
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Goodreads

Most of us had grandiose ideas of what we would be like as parents; what we would allow our children to do and all those things we would never allow. We swore we would never let our child watch more than 30 minutes of television, or sleep in our bed, or eat chicken nuggets or God forbid, guzzle cheese from a can (gasp!). Yet, the moment those little bundles of joy entered our lives, reality took over. Soon enough, we realized that before children, we knew nothing about being parents.

From breastfeeding to co-sleeping, pledging to feed our children all-natural, home-cooked meals and so forth, there often comes a point in time where surviving parenthood supersedes your views and your “nevers” slip away. Right?

Never Will I Ever is a collection of essays by mothers (and one brave dad!) who share their stories of how they evolved as parents and learned that when it comes to raising children, we can never say never.

Blurb:

3* – I liked it. I was laughing out loud as I read the relatable and funny parenting stories in Lose the Cape: Never Will I Ever*. As parents, we all have had those famous last words “when I’m a parent, NEVER will I EVER…”, principles our pre-kid selves swore we’d uphold until the kids were actually born. Parents confess when they ate those famous last words of parenting in Lose the Cape: Never Will I Ever and make us all feel better about losing our superhero capes. 

 

Synopsis:

Most of us had grandiose ideas of what we would be like as parents; what we would allow our children to do and all those things we would never allow. We swore we would never let our child watch more than 30 minutes of television, or sleep in our bed, or eat chicken nuggets or God forbid, guzzle cheese from a can (gasp!). Yet, the moment those little bundles of joy entered our lives, reality took over. Soon enough, we realized that before children, we knew nothing about being parents.

From breastfeeding to co-sleeping, pledging to feed our children all-natural, home-cooked meals and so forth, there often comes a point in time where surviving parenthood supersedes your views and your “nevers” slip away. Right?

Lose the Cape: Never Will I Ever is a collection of essays by mothers (and one brave dad!) who share their stories of how they evolved as parents and learned that when it comes to raising children, we can never say never.

 

My Thoughts:

 

 

My Indian friend’s mom diligently served her kids bland, processed American food as the rest of us indulged in my mom’s phenomenally delicious Indian meal. As an idealistic teen, I remember thinking to myself “Never will I EVER serve my kids a different meal than what I’ve made for dinner”…famous last words of my pre-kid self. 

This mom is trying her best to temporarily please her child from the meltdown that will undoubtedly ensue but I thought she was making him pickier and spoiled in the long run. It’s amazing the clarity and determination our pre-kid selves have about what kind of parents we’ll be. 

There are childbirth classes that teach us what to expect when we’re in labor, plenty of books that cover what we should do as parents but where is the book that allows us to share our parenting misconceptions and realizations that despite our superheroic efforts,  we are, in fact, only human? 

Lose the Cape: Never Will I Ever (and then I had kids!)*, that’s where! In this collection of anecdotes, parents confess their preconceived notions (pre-conceived? punny, I know) of the parents they would be and how their kids came along and demanded otherwise. These moms (and 1 dad’s) stories are relatable and funny, I was nodding in agreement and laughing out loud as I read.

Somehow their stories made me feel better about my own parenting trangressions violating my own parenting ideals. All those times I fed my kids a different meal than the Indian food I made in fact (gasp!), heated up frozen chicken nuggets and blue box mac and cheese (not too long ago!) or made them sleep in their school clothes to save us time and struggle in the morning (when I was working outside the home!) were validated and ok. 

Hey wait! When did this become a confession instead of a review? Oh, who am I kidding, I lost my superhero cape when the doctor first announced, “it’s a boy!” over a decade ago. My point is, as parents, we have all done it…made grand statements that are our famous last words as soon as the little hairballs kids are born.

I enjoyed many of the stories in this collection and was so happy to see my NC Blogger Network friends Allison from Allison Barrett Carter sharing a funny-cause-I’ve-been-there incident with a pink cupcake and Andrea from Good Girl Gone Redneck who always makes me laugh and cry as the grande finale. 

Parents that need a good laugh or need to come to grips that they can’t be perfect, will love Lose the Cape*! 

[bctt tweet=”Moms, you KNOW you’ve broken that 1 rule you thought you never would. Tell us! https://wp.me/p2mrs8-20q #LosetheCape”]

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Books Like This You Might Enjoy:

The Big Book of Parenting Tweets: Featuring the Most Hilarious Parents on Twitter* – 5*, laugh until you cry with these hilarious parenting tweets

The Good Mother Myth by Various Authors – 4*, more serious in nature but mothers sharing how they realized we need to break the stereotype of the “good” mother

I Just Want to Pee Alone by Various Mom Bloggers – 3*, collection of funny short stories from moms

The Mother of All Meltdowns by Various Mom Bloggers – 3*, more funny short stories of parents having meltdowns

I told you mine, now you tell me yours: When did you first lose your superhero cape? What happened when you realized you just broke your pre-kid parenting values?