Author: Gill Sims
Format reviewed: Paperback
Source: Purchased
Publisher: Harper Collins
Publication Date: 31st May 2018
Rating: 4 Stars
Tuesday 8th September
First day back at school. I am going to 100% nail being a school mummy this year. I can totally do this. Yes, this year is definitely going to be much better – I am absolutely not going to shout at the children, let them stuff their faces with crisps or goggle away on the iPad. And I most certainly will not slump on the sofa at the end of the day, glugging wine and muttering ‘FML’ repeatedly.
Unfortunately I have not yet actually managed to buy the bento boxes for their lunches or book jiu jitsu lessons, and I will have to learn to like green tea, as it is foul, and I have not yet mastered French plaits, but I am quietly confident that these are mere details in my grand master plan…
It is Mummy’s 39th birthday. She is staring down the barrel of a future of people asking if she wants to come to their advanced yoga classes, and polite book clubs where everyone claims to be tiddly after a glass of Pinot Grigio and says things like ‘Oooh gosh, are you having another glass?’
But Mummy does not want to go quietly into that good night of women with sensible haircuts who ‘live for their children’ and stand in the playground trying to trump each other with their offspring’s extracurricular activities and achievements, and boasting about their latest holidays.
Instead, she clutches a large glass of wine, muttering ‘FML’ over and over again. Until she remembers the gem of an idea she’s had…
First day back at school. I am going to 100% nail being a school mummy this year. I can totally do this. Yes, this year is definitely going to be much better – I am absolutely not going to shout at the children, let them stuff their faces with crisps or goggle away on the iPad. And I most certainly will not slump on the sofa at the end of the day, glugging wine and muttering ‘FML’ repeatedly.
Unfortunately I have not yet actually managed to buy the bento boxes for their lunches or book jiu jitsu lessons, and I will have to learn to like green tea, as it is foul, and I have not yet mastered French plaits, but I am quietly confident that these are mere details in my grand master plan…
It is Mummy’s 39th birthday. She is staring down the barrel of a future of people asking if she wants to come to their advanced yoga classes, and polite book clubs where everyone claims to be tiddly after a glass of Pinot Grigio and says things like ‘Oooh gosh, are you having another glass?’
But Mummy does not want to go quietly into that good night of women with sensible haircuts who ‘live for their children’ and stand in the playground trying to trump each other with their offspring’s extracurricular activities and achievements, and boasting about their latest holidays.
Instead, she clutches a large glass of wine, muttering ‘FML’ over and over again. Until she remembers the gem of an idea she’s had…
Despite not being a mother myself, I can't help but feel that parents everywhere will identify with Ellen, and her thoughts on parenthood.
Written as a sort of diary / in date sections over the course of a school year, you see how Ellen dreams of having the perfect family, with incredibly well behaved kids, and doting husband, and then you are shown the hilarious reality of her situation,
Not only do we see Ellen's family but we also see snapshots in detail of two other vastly different parenting styles, from Ellen's sister Jessica, and sister-in-law Louise. Which makes for an unforgettable experience,
At times Ellen is quite whiny, other times she is making fairly accurate observations, what I do know is she has over the course of the book got under my skin and I am now eager to read the next book in the series.
For me not the quickest of reads, but after a certain point, I found I was enjoying it more and more, to the extent I was racing to finish it.
Written as a sort of diary / in date sections over the course of a school year, you see how Ellen dreams of having the perfect family, with incredibly well behaved kids, and doting husband, and then you are shown the hilarious reality of her situation,
Not only do we see Ellen's family but we also see snapshots in detail of two other vastly different parenting styles, from Ellen's sister Jessica, and sister-in-law Louise. Which makes for an unforgettable experience,
At times Ellen is quite whiny, other times she is making fairly accurate observations, what I do know is she has over the course of the book got under my skin and I am now eager to read the next book in the series.
For me not the quickest of reads, but after a certain point, I found I was enjoying it more and more, to the extent I was racing to finish it.
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