I’ll Show Myself Out by Jessi Klein
Written by Ashley Kelmore, Posted in Uncategorized
Three Stars
Best for:
New moms looking for some solidarity.
In a nutshell:
Author Jessi Klein shares brutally honest stories from her life raising a tiny human as an older mother.
Worth quoting:
If I’d had a hard copy I’d probably have underlined a bunch, but it was an audio book, so I didn’t capture any.
Why I chose it:
I generally like her stuff.
Review:
I don’t have kids, and I’m not having kids. So this book is not for me, and my review should be read from that lens. My review is for other people like me, who might be thinking about picking this book up even though they don’t have any kids, nor do they want any. But maybe they have friends who do.
Klein’s writing reminds me a bit of a previous book I read – “All Joy and No Fun.” I absolutely get that Klein loves her son, and I even get the sense that she is happy being a mother. But being a mother, as described by her, sounds brutal. Like, really, really rough. And she has access to a nanny and had a lot of support. Like, if it was just a matter of it ‘taking a village,’ she should be all set. And yet she clearly isn’t.
One thing that stuck with me was the advice her son’s teacher gave about putting together small books when changes are coming, to walk the child through the change so he can be prepared. Man, that’s a great idea. I might start doing that for myself for changes, just to keep myself calm.
I don’t think that parenting is easy for the primary caregiver really ever. But my goodness, this book definitely makes it sound like something pretty freaking brutal. And honestly, probably more people could benefit from some of this type of frank discussion if they are at all on the fence about having kids.
Recommend to a Friend / Keep / Donate it / Toss it:
Donate it (if I had a physical copy)
