Mom Invented

If you're feeling confused about being pregnant or being a parent, it can be tough to find some honest advice. Enter my new friend Jenna McCarthy's book, The Parent Trip: From High Heels and Parties to Highchairs and Potties, a hilarious look at being a mom that aims to fill the gaps left by traditional parenting books.

With a no-holds-barred approach to all topics mom, Jenna says what a lot of women are thinking, but don't always admit -- and while it's not always pretty, it's all based on her own real-life parenting experience. The mom of two tackles everything from pregnancy's quirks to breast pumps and kids' books with humor. Check out this excerpt on introducing solid foods:

It’s pretty much agreed that as far as food is concerned, babies can get by on breast milk for the first year of life. To me, that’s like saying “women can get by with one purse in perpetuity,” which theoretically, of course, is true, but do I really want to carry a sequined silver evening bag roughly the size of a banana on a day trip to Disneyland? Am I expected to tote my lip-gloss and compact to the Opera (never mind that I don’t go to the Opera) in my hot pink, laminated, moisture and mold-resistant, you-could-fit-a-case-of-diet-Coke-in-it diaper bag? And which of these two options—if I am going to be allowed but one—do I bring to a job interview? On a hiking trip? To a funeral?

Armed with a combination of this obviously sound reasoning and the permission of your pediatrician, you will set about researching the best time and means of introducing solid foods (which frankly aren’t very solid when you start out, but that’s another matter altogether). After considerable googling, you may stumble across this line on a parenting-advice web site: “Mothers often report that they knew their babies were ready when they picked up food from a plate, chewed it, swallowed it, and wanted more.” As readiness-indicators go, I would agree the only thing that could beat that would be if baby tied on her own bib and held up a hand-written recipe for pureed Coq au Vin.

Have you read the book? What did you think? What was your biggest surprise as a parent that books didn't prepare you for?

Tagged as: Mom to Mom™, parenting, parenting advice, parenting books, writing