LISTEN TO YOUR MOTHER

A collection of personal essays about the importance of connecting mothers to each other for support.

Research points toward the myriad benefits for the children when a parent stays home while a spouse goes to work. Most parents look back on having had that opportunity as a blessing, a connection with their children that is worth more than anything. It’s also true that, when it’s happening, that blessed feeling is leavened with the insane conviction that you’ve worked nonstop all day and have nothing concrete to show for it. Enter the Internet and editor Imig. Five years ago, she was right in the thick of it, with two preschool-aged children and a husband frequently away on long trips for work. Imig began blogging about her life, which connected her to similarly minded women looking for comfort, advice and a way to laugh at it all. The author eventually started the Listen to Your Mother network, which has branched off into multiple websites, a live stage performance and this book. For a collection of writings with an ostensibly narrow focus, the range of material is impressive. A first grader collapses, and the medical tests offer no conclusions. A teenager, worried about becoming pregnant, finds an unexpected ally in her own mother, who says, “If you get pregnant, don’t get married because then you’re making two mistakes instead of one.” Daughters that hate pink; a mother’s rage at being left behind by a husband on deployment; tiny tots, their eyes aglow, eating the tiny slips of paper mother wrote her daily gratitude on—these and countless other experiences demonstrate the wide range of the ups and downs of parenting.

The essays are short, which enables the book to cover a lot of ground, but they also pack a strong emotional punch—and they’re almost certain to leave any mother feeling less alone.