Sometimes when I’m on the road or between novels, I pick up a “Chicken Soup” book. For those of you who have never read one, they are anthologies of essays on a particular topic. They range from books on parents and cancer to being a pet lover. What I like most about the whole series is that you can read them for just a few minutes whenever you get the chance. The essays are approximately 1 to 6 pages long.
The other day while I was at the store, I bought “Chicken Soup for the Working Mother’s Soul.” I found it relevant reading given that I have been a working mother since the day my first daughter was born.
At first, I loved the book. Some of the essays were on housewife work, which applied to me. I was literally laughing out loud at some of the things that were written. Then the book took a turn that confused me a bit. One of the chapters was about how being a mother is a job. Without going into that argument, it was strange to appear in the book because the essays were about women quitting their jobs to stay home with their children. Perhaps they wanted to be sure that within the title “Working mothers” they included those whose job it is to be a mother? I’m not sure, but the rehearsals seemed out of the flow of the others.
Then I got to a rehearsal that really blew me away. It started like this: “When I tell another mother that I work from home and she says, ‘Oh, that must be the ideal situation,’ I know one thing about her, even if we’ve never met before now, nor has she ever worked since. home “. I have met that woman 50 times I think, and she has always made the same comment!
The book got back on track and I was thrilled to read about moms that I could fully identify with. These were the moms who do the same balancing and juggling that I do on a daily basis. They are probably the same moms who are happy to pick up a book that they can read for 5 minutes at a time and enjoy.
You should be able to buy “Chicken Soup for the Working Mother’s Soul” (by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Patty Aubery) at any bookstore, including Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. If you are a working mother, you will absolutely identify with many of the essays and cry and laugh along with the authors.