It's time to duck the flying mashed potatoes and get real about parenting and the modern domestic life with Lisa Barker. Laugh, cry, laugh some more, it's all about preserving sanity.
Just because your kids drive you insane doesn't mean you are a bad parent. It could very well mean you're an INVOLVED parent--a scar-bearing member of the Parent Corps--and your greatest ally is a good sense of humor as well as the ability to laugh at, and make light of, the challenges of parenting.
It's time to duck the flying mashed potatoes and get real about parenting and the modern domestic life with Lisa Barker. Laugh, cry, laugh some more, it's all about preserving sanity. Based on the award-winning syndicated parenting humor column Jelly Mom™.
Professional Reviews
At Lisa Barker's house, every day is Mother's Day. Ha!
At Lisa Barker's house, every day is Mother's Day. But that doesn't mean Lisa is getting cards, flowers, and gifts.
What she gets is migraine-flavored shopping trips, toy-cluttered rooms, bad hair, a kidney infection, and loads of laundry.
What you'll get is loads of laughs when you read Lisa Barker's book, "Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane...Doesn't Mean You Are A Bad Parent", which is published by Lulu.
Lisa Barker lovingly and accurately refers to herself as Jelly Mom. You can imagine where that moniker is rooted considering she is the mother, chef, and maid to five children, ranging in age from bawling to sloppy to argumentative. Throw in a husband, a dog, and nine cats and you have one big hysterical family.
"Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane..." is a generous and funny offering based on Ms. Barker's syndicated "Jelly Mom" columns, and her take on mothering her "kiddos" will leave you bouncing off the walls with laughter.
She doesn't stop at parenting, however. She is more than that. She is a woman and here's what she has to say on that subject:
"I don't know where people got the impression that women were the weaker sex, especially when you consider that women today (as always) gestate, carry around a living, developing baby, go through intense labor, give birth and the next day they are nursing a baby while they vacuum, make grocery lists, chaperone toddlers, negotiate with their teenagers and order meat for the freezer all while standing over a hot stove cooking dinner."
The appealing thing about Lisa Barker's sense of humor is that the joke is on her. She is the willing foil in this madcap menagerie and that's what makes it work.
You also know that under that acerbic layer of wit is a mother who loves her children and wouldn't trade them for a million bucks. Her kiddos are what she is about.
"Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane" would make a great Mother's Day gift. Every mother could slip easily between the pages of Lisa Barker's book and find a little bit of her own self in this treasure trove of classic comedy.
Lisa's column can be found online at www.JellyMom.com "Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane" can be ordered online at www.lulu.com
Review by Wendel Potter
http://www.wendelpotter.com
April 22, 2006
Wendel Potter, Chronicler and Humorist, is a contributing comedy writer for Jay Leno and has also written for Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, and the Yakov Smirnoff Show.
Lisa has a sense a humor that only a mom can truly understand!
Lisa has a sense a humor that only a mom can truly understand! I laughed the entire way through this book and I highly recommend it to ANY mom! If you don't laugh while reading this book ... you must have an honorary membership to the infamous "Parenting Police". Thanks to Lisa I now know that I really am NOT alone. When's the next book coming out?
~ Anita DeFrank
http://www.MommysHelperOnline.com
This is a book that will leave you with a belly aching from laughter.
"Just Because Your Kids Drive You Insane.Doesn't Mean You Are A Bad Parent!" is a hilarious a collection of stories focusing on Lisa Barker's experiences in raising five children. It is a realistic look at the trials and tribulations of motherhood without the glamour. Yet, Lisa approaches the everyday chaos with a sense of humor that carries her through it all.
In the reality of a world that is sticky from waist level down, she acknowledges that parenthood is not always the kind of idealized experience that she has read about in child psychology books. Parents are less than perfect humans and make mistakes. She admits to hiding from the kids to enjoy a treat of chocolate ice cream that they are not allowed.
The kids wear on her nerves and whine, argue and tug, yet somehow she finds with herself an ability to handle it all, even if in a sometimes less than perfect way. Her love and sense of humor make the experience not only bearable, but also actually pleasurable as she laughs at her own ineptness and finds innovative approaches to dealing with the nitty-gritty tasks of being a mom.
Her humorous approach to life with children, will inspire you, tickle you, and leave you with a smile of satisfaction at the end of each story. Lisa's book is highly recommended reading for anyone who is, expects to be, or has ever been a parent. It is a true accounting that will leave those who have been there with the satisfaction of knowing that others have been through it too. It will give parenting experience to anyone that does not have it already.
This is a book that will leave you with a belly aching from laughter, a heart filled with joy, a deeper understanding of the reality involved in raising a family, and a knowledge of how any task can be made lighter when approached with a humorous attitude.
~ Sheila Moss, "The Tenessee Firefly," www.HumorColumnist.com, writes for The Kingsport Daily News and is the editor of www.SouthernHumorists.com
Deputy Dave Jenkins sets out to find the murderer of the local high school principal, aided by a voice from the grave that is sometimes helpful and sometimes misleading.
"Murder isn't usually this funny."
Amazon reviewer
