The Mommy Group: Finding Friends and Surviving the Happiest Time of Our Lives

Gold’s chronicle of her Park Slope support group’s struggles with C-sections, breast pumps, daycare, sleep training, child-free friends, and birthday parties, among other stressors, will have limited appeal to readers not dealing with the same. Nevertheless, her main assertion is on point: finding and building relationships with peers is critical for new mothers in an era when many no longer have preexisting support networks. This is more than a flippant celebration of the power of women together, thanks to frank, personal sharing about challenging topics like postpartum anxiety, as well as unvarnished portraits of Gold’s friends and their children. Her brief nods to the role of mommy groups in communities less affluent than her own hip Brooklyn circle, and to the politics of childcare rights, come across as perfunctory and lacking in insight. However, anyone familiar with parenting blogs will be thankful that Gold avoids the topic of “mommy wars” over different parenting styles, even while explaining how to find a support group that’s the right fit. She is also restrained in offering specific parenting and child development advice, keeping the focus on mothers’ emotional well-being. Agent: Terra Chalberg, Chalberg and Sussman. (Mar.)