The Mother of All Meltdowns: Real Stories of Moms’ Finest (Worst, Completely Awful Moments)

A collection of parenting humor pieces drawn from real-life experience brings together 30 authors from the prolific mommy blogosphere on the topic of the adult tantrum. As shown here, this kind of spontaneous emotional explosion can occur at home, in the car, in the grocery store, or anytime when life becomes too much. Most of the crises come from everyday troubles, like broken glass, smeared poop, and shattered Lego models, though a few notable pieces, including Michelle Nahom’s essay about having a critically ill child and Kristi Rieger Campbell’s touching self-exploration about having a child on the autism spectrum, tackle more serious concerns. Nearly all these bloggers are well-versed in the art of self-deprecation, and any one of the stories should draw sympathetic chuckles from women trying to forgive themselves for lapses in their cool in the face of daily frustrations. The anthology does, however, suffer from a narrowly middle-class, suburban perspective that makes it feel repetitive while missing an opportunity to celebrate the universality of parenting across geographic, ethnic, and social class lines. Though these expressions of maternal frustration are slight, they may provide a moment of understanding just when it’s most needed. (BookLife)