Not your ordinary parenting book

At the onset, I salute the author for her maiden work as a full book (she has co-authored a book earlier). I further congratulate her for gathering the courage to pen down her feelings in an absolutely candid manner. Many books written on the subject of parenting have been rather scientific or fact based, but I find this to be the only humane book on this topic. I made a booboo acts as an excellent tribute to the baby, parents and the entire hilarity of parenting presented in it. While centered obviously on the baby, this book is still about the parent and not a baby and how he grows with milestones etc. I can also well imagine how the baby will feels when he grows up to read it (for which a rather endearing apologia is also added by the author at the end for ‘laying his baby life bare’), and consume the feelings of her mother for him. He will be able to know his childhood not only from day one of his birth but also the weeks before when the author is found blaming her husband in a casual banter for passing his ‘late in reaching everywhere’ genes on to the baby as he refused to be born on his due date. 

The book presents the good, bad, ugly of parenting as it is, in a completely non preachy and utterly hilarious tone, mentioning even the tiniest of details like ‘things only moms do – having a handbag that is always exploding with my son’s food stuff, back-up food stuff and emergency food stuff in case he throws a tantrum in the mall. A bag that is full of cookie crumbs deep down in the pockets that never go away and will turn into rare fossils one day’. While basedon author’s real story, the book reads like a tightly done narrative fiction. Any parent, especially a mother will be able to completely relate to author’s story as if it is their own. Confessions, guilt feelings, goof ups, trials, tribulations and occasional triumphs – all form a part of this rollicking story. Role of the husband ‘who answers commonsensically, the random stranger who while asking for directions is made to hear a story about the baby as the author can’t think beyond him, the office colleagues who stop using swear words around her as she is now ‘too motherly to appreciate any kind of profanity’, the mother and mother in law who are unable to annoy her anymore with their advice as ‘the author is now completely maxed out on the whole world prying at her life for nine months’ – all help to move the story forward very interestingly. 

The real anecdotes cover all aspects of parenting up to two years of a child’s age. While the chapters are roughly organised around the age of the baby, all of them have a different central theme covering all aspects around the life of a new mom, from bringing the baby home, handling him carefully, author fearing she ‘might break the baby’ to change in the relationship with spouse and their very believable quibbles over bringing the baby up to the classic career vs. baby debate, to toddler tantrums. 

This book will stand out from other parenting books on the shelf since it does not aim to ‘teach’ parenting skills.  

The author is a senior manager in a bank and a mother of two girls.