A Single Mom Shares Her Inspiring and Funny Tales of Parenting, Full of Love, Advice, and Humor
"Laugh-out-loud amusing and all-around entertaining." - Library Journal
"One of the best new parenting ebooks." -BookAuthority
A Single Mom Shares Her Inspiring and Hilarious Tales of Parenting, Full of Love, Advice, and Humor
Being a single mother means relaxing your cleanliness standards. A lot. Being a single mother means missing your kids like crazy when your ex has them, only to want to give them back ten minutes after they come home. Being a single mother means accepting sleep deprivation as a natural state. Being a single mother means hauling a toddler, a baby, and a diaper bag while wearing high heels and a cute skirt, because you never know when you'll meet someone. Being a single mother means finding out you are stronger than you ever knew was possible.
Since birth, Lara Lillibridge's children wanted, "Mama, Mama, only Mama!" whether they were tired or just woke up from a nap-whether they were starving or had just finished a bowl of goldfish crackers. Over ten years later, not much has changed. Between hilarious episodes and candid stories, Lillibridge offers the bits of advice and enlightenment she's gained along the way and never fails to commiserate on the many challenges that come with raising children in a non-nuclear family. This creative, touching memoir will resonate with single moms everywhere, whether solo parenting is new territory or well-trodden ground for them.
Written in the style of a diary with blogs, articles and recipes tucked between the pages, Mama, Mama, Only Mama follows Lillibridge and her two children, Big Pants and Tiny Pants, out of divorce, through six years of single parenting, and into the family blender with a quasi-stepfather called SigO. Complete with highly useful recipes such as congealed s'more stew, recycled snack candy bars, instant oatmeal cookies and a fine chicken casserole that didn't pass Tiny Pants's "lick test," Lillibridge grows into her role as mother, finds true love, and comes to terms with her ex-husband.
Laugh-out-loud amusing and all-around entertaining.&; &; Library Journal
/ Table of Contents / / Part 1 The Dissolution of Our Marriage / 1 (26) / Step Stools / 2 (2) / Swedish Meatballs / 4 (3) / The Beginning Always Starts with an Ending / 7 (2) / Whitefish Girl / 9 (4) / Drag Fish / 13 (3) / Warning Signs Are for Wimps / 16 (3) / The End of It All / 19 (8) / Part 2 Becoming Only Mama / 27 (156) / Preparing the Reader for the Ensuing Chaos: How to Make a Light Whiskey Sour / 28 (4) / It's a Nice Life, but Someone's Got to Pay for It / 32 (4) / Only Mama Post: Divorce Is Just Weird Sometimes--An Ode to a Dancing Gopher / 36 (3) / Negotiating with Spiders / 39 (4) / Introducing the Stars of Our Show: Big Pants and Tiny Pants / 43 (4) / In Which Big Pants and I Accidentally Misplace the Baby / 47 (2) / Dating as a Single Parent / 49 (6) / Mexican Lasagna / 55 (3) / Only Mama Post: I Clean the Fridge and Ruminate About Marriage / 58 (3) / Halloween and an Ill-Fated Facebook Romance / 61 (4) / Only Mama Post: Pawning Off My Work on My Four-Year-Old / 65 (2) / I Encounter a Weird Married Mom / 67 (3) / Artichoke Dip / 70 (2) / Nannies versus Husbands / 72 (4) / Actual Letter to Nanny on Her First Day on the Job / 76 (3) / Grocery Shopping / 79 (4) / My Ultimate Egg White Breakfast / 83 (2) / Only Mama Post: The Big Fat Truth About Cleaning and Being Single / 85 (3) / Housekeeping / 88 (3) / Cleaning Tips for Slackers / 91 (2) / My First Single-Mama Mother's Day / 93 (2) / Moms Gone Wild / 95 (4) / Free Tips for Moms Considering Going Wild / 99 (3) / Homemade Gourmet-ish Tortilla Chips / 102 (1) / Only Mama Post: I Swear, Children, I Never Flashed My Boobs at Fantasy Fest / 103 (2) / On Naps / 105 (3) / The Mama Bus Always Leaves on Time / 108 (3) / Single Parenting Turns You into a Teenager / 111 (3) / Actually Healthy-ish Microwave Popcorn AKA Desperation Popcorn / 114 (2) / Kitchen Lies / 116 (2) / Only Mama Post: My Christmas Peppermint Tray / 118 (2) / Consignment Store Christmas / 120 (2) / Only Mama Post: Tag-Team Christmas / 122 (2) / Standing in the Return Line / 124 (3) / How to Make Fried Dough / 127 (3) / Male Friends, with and without Benefits / 130 (3) / UnobtainiMan / 133 (3) / School / 136 (2) / Only Mama Post: In Which I Am Forced to Commune with Nature in a Foot of Snow and Write a Bad Poem About It / 138 (3) / In Which I Go Out to Eat Alone and Live to Tell About It / 141 (3) / The World's Simplest Beer Bread / 144 (2) / Beer Bread Breakfast Muffins / 146 (1) / First Day of School / 147 (2) / Only Mama Post: The Tooth Fairy Fell Asleep / 149 (3) / The Big Wheel / 152 (3) / Experimental Mama Cooking: Congealed's `more Stew / 155 (2) / The Mama Contract / 157 (2) / Only Mama Post: Homework Avoidance / 159 (2) / The Good Men Project: What a Boy's Love of Baseball Taught His Sports-Averse Mother / 161 (4) / Barely Recognizable Animals / 165 (3) / Only Mama Post: How We Obtained a Cat / 168 (3) / Budgets and Birthdays and a Complicated Cake / 171 (2) / Simplified Cassata Cake (Cleveland Version) / 173 (3) / Mother F-ing Snakes on a Mother F-ing Plane, or How I Wound Up on the Huffington Post / 176 (3) / HuffPost: What If We Treated Marriage More Like the Contract It Is? / 179 (4) / Part 3 Into the Family Blender / 183 (120) / The House Is Right, the Time Is Now / 184 (3) / A Move and a Strike / 187 (2) / Easy Like Oh, Hell, Easy Is for Elevator Music / 189 (4) / Only Mama Post: The Best Advice I Have Ever Been Given / 193 (2) / Instant Oatmeal Cookies / 195 (2) / Sleepover with Daddy Pants / 197 (4) / Only Mama Post: In Which We Take Dog to the Vet / 201 (2) / Watching Your Child Mourn / 203 (3) / The Great Latke Incident of 2014 / 206 (3) / How to Make Latkes / 209 (2) / Magical Thinking / 211 (2) / Only Mama Post: The Talk and "The Book" / 213 (4) / How to Fly with Small Children / 217 (5) / Recycled Snack Candy Bars / 222 (2) / Tiny Pants and the Babies / 224 (5) / Only Mama Post: Oh Santa, I'm Sorry / 229 (2) / HuffPost: Sometimes You Are Not a Victim--You Are an Asshole / 231 (3) / The Great Chicken Casserole Standoff / 234 (2) / Chicken Casserole / 236 (1) / Only Mama Post: The Tooth Fairy Got Played / 237 (2) / The More Things Change, the More I Lock the Family Out of the House / 239 (5) / HuffPost: Elephant Skin, Grinning Corpse Face, and Fighting Gravity / 244 (3) / Homemade Spa-Type Skin Exfoliant / 247 (1) / Mama (Accidentally) Makes a Dildo / 248 (3) / HuffPost: A Divorced Mom Talks to Her Children About Marriage / 251 (4) / Optional Items--Chocolate Cookies / 255 (4) / Only Mama Post: Clean Vehicle--Is That Even Possible? / 259 (3) / Diamonds / 262 (4) / Italian Wedding Soup / 266 (1) / HuffPost: Saying Farewell to the Tooth Fairy / 267 (3) / How I Became a Hockey Mom Against My Better Judgment / 270 (5) / Only Mama Post: Freudian Lawn Job / 275 (2) / For the Love of All That Is Holy, Can We Please Agree That All Women's Clothing Needs Pockets? / 277 (3) / Fiery Taco Seasoning Mix / 280 (1) / The Family Blender / 281 (3) / HuffPost: Fourth of July as a Single Parent / 284 (3) / Grade A / 287 (2) / Circling Hope / 289 (2) / Tell-All: I Make a Turkey for No Good Reason (Includes a Bonus Cranberry Sauce Recipe) / 291 (5) / Wait, Don't Ride Off So Quickly! / 296 (3) / Modern Parents, Messy Kids: Should You Send Your Ex a Father's Day Card? / 299 (3) / Saying Farewell to Only Mama / 302 (1) / Acknowledgments 303 (1) / Author's Note 304 / /
&;One of the best new parenting ebooks.&; &;BookAuthority
A Single Mom Shares Her Inspiring and Hilarious Tales of Parenting, Full of Love, Advice, and Humor
Being a single mother means relaxing your cleanliness standards. A lot. Being a single mother means missing your kids like crazy when your ex has them, only to want to give them back ten minutes after they come home. Being a single mother means accepting sleep deprivation as a natural state. Being a single mother means hauling a toddler, a baby, and a diaper bag while wearing high heels and a cute skirt, because you never know when you&;ll meet someone. Being a single mother means finding out you are stronger than you ever knew was possible.
Since birth, Lara Lillibridge&;s children wanted, &;Mama, Mama, only Mama!&; whether they were tired or just woke up from a nap&;whether they were starving or had just finished a bowl of goldfish crackers. Over ten years later, not much has changed. Between hilarious episodes and candid stories, Lillibridge offers the bits of advice and enlightenment she&;s gained along the way and never fails to commiserate on the many challenges that come with raising children in a non-nuclear family. This creative, touching memoir will resonate with single moms everywhere, whether solo parenting is new territory or well-trodden ground for them.
Written in the style of a diary with blogs, articles and recipes tucked between the pages, Mama, Mama, Only Mama follows Lillibridge and her two children, Big Pants and Tiny Pants, out of divorce, through six years of single parenting, and into the family blender with a quasi-stepfather called SigO. Complete with highly useful recipes such as congealed s&;more stew, recycled snack candy bars, instant oatmeal cookies and a fine chicken casserole that didn&;t pass Tiny Pants&;s &;lick test,&; Lillibridge grows into her role as mother, finds true love, and comes to terms with her ex-husband.