Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession: 10/22/07

I remember my parents watching Erma Bombeck on Good Morning America back in the 1980s. I remember think she was out of touch with how our family worked but lots of people my parents age thought she was funny.

Through BookCrossing I came across her sixth book: Just Wait Until You Have Children of Your Own which was illustrated by Bil Keane (of Family Circus). Having enjoyed that book, I got this book at last year's local BookCrossing meeting.

Motherhood, the Second Oldest Profession was Bombeck's 11th collection of humorous sketches about being a mother and housewife. It was also done at probably the height of her popularity when she was up on a pedestal as the ultimate super-mom comedienne. Along with her fame came an imposed wholesomeness. Her status role model is reflected in these essays. In the Keane book, she wrote mostly about her own children and how ill equipped she felt about being a parent. In this book she has stories from a variety of baby-boom generation mothers which end on forced up notes and heartwarming moral lessons.

Yes, parenting is a lot of work and has the potential for being heartbreaking work especially if there is a family tragedy but Bombeck's essays that cover these topics feel forced. I think also by the 1980s, her children must have been grown so she was out of touch with modern family dynamics.

Comments (1)

Comment #1: Thursday, November, 1, 2007 at 17:15:45

Callista

I have and have read this book too!"