WINNERS: Congratulations to alyson330, russellk and mikesgrrl! They are the winners of Just Let Me Lie Down. Enjoy!
Tuesday night I was one of the many tired, half-insane moms who gathered at Orbis Bistro in Montclair for wine, hors d’oervres, and discussion of Real Simple editor Kristin van Ogtrop’s new book Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom. Sponsored by Watchung Booksellers, it was a great book event.
After some mingling and drinking, Margot Sage-EL, owner of Watchung Booksellers, welcomed everyone and introduced Kristin, who told us the inspiration behind her book and read some of her funniest terms, such as Coup de moi:
It works like this: There is a flag football game at 6:30 at night and the entire family is going, but it’s November and thirty-five degrees outside and you declare in a moment of bravery at 6:15, I am not going. My son will just have to know that I love him. No one protests and you end up on the sofa with a glass of wine in a completely quiet house. That is a coup de moi. Or you look at your work schedule for the day and see that it contains three meetings that don’t need to happen and so you cancel them. That is a coup de moi. Or you keep getting cc’d on a long tedious e-mail chain and finally send out a reply-to-all that says, “Please stop cc’ing me or I’m going to kill one of you”–coup de moi.
More mingling, eating and drinking occured and Kristin, who looks just as put together in real life as she does in Real Simple, was funny, friendly and great to talk to as she signed copies of her book. Watchung Booksellers treated everyone to a great goody bag, with things to calm a tired, insane mom–chamomile tea and a delicious piece of chocolate. My favorite treat? The $5 off coupon for any book at the store.
If you haven’t purchased a copy yet, you’re in luck. Thanks to Kristin’s publisher Hachette Book Group, Barista Kids has 3 copies of Just Let Me Lie Down to giveaway.
To enter the contest keep reading…
Simply tell us your funniest half-insane mom story in the comments section. Three people who reply to this post by 11:59 p.m. EST on Sunday, May 2, 2010, will be chosen at random to receive a copy of Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms For the Half-insane Working Mom. Please post only once.
No purchase necessary. Starts Thursday, April 29, 2010, 1:00 pm EST and ends Sunday, May 2, 2010, at 11:59 pm.
Open to U.S. residents ages 16 years and older. Void where prohibited.
If you aren’t lucky enough to win, head over to Watchung Booksellers and buy a copy. It will make you laugh.
Oh man, I may be too tired and half-insane to recall one. Oh, oh, got it!
I had two babies back-to-back, 13 months apart. My neurons were shot from, like, 18 months of gestation (that’s like an elephant, people!). I had just gotten the newborn down for a nap and decided to bring the older one out to the front yard to talk to my husband. I was standing there talking, trance-like, when I realized I hadn’t heard or seen my son in a few minutes. I started screaming at my husband, “Where is he? Check the road!!” Greg looked at me, with a concerned face, and said, “You’re holding him.”
I was so fatigued, I didn’t even realize I was holding my ‘lost’ child.
This book looks hilarious, btw. I read her blog from time to time.
I don’t have just one but since my husband and I both work full-time and have a 6-month-old and I’m working on my PhD and just generally trying to find time to also take care of our 2 dogs and a household, I feel like my life is just one half-insane mom story. 🙂
Early summer, 2001. My new baby is two months old. I still can’t believe that at 43, I am the mother of a newborn again. I am caught up in my illustration work, running a community theater company, teaching yoga, and my oldest daughter is recovering from bells palsy brought on by lyme disease. To say I am ambivalent about having a new baby doesn’t begin to describe it. We are all at a community center to play bingo, and I park my sleeping baby in her stroller in a nearby corner. Time goes by, and I become vaguely aware of a baby crying. More time passes, and the baby is still crying. “Why doesn’t that mom pick up here baby?” I think to myself. More minutes pass. The baby continues to cry. I grow more irritated at that irresponsible mom. Suddenly, someone nudges me and says, “don’t you think you should pick her up? She’s been crying for a while.” I suddenly realize its MY baby. I’m THAT mother.
Okay, I’m not a working mom — but I’m married to one (and I’m looking for some fun extra Mother’s Day gifts for my working wife)!
Is it in poor spirit to tell half-insane stories about my wife? I’ll just say that about half the time my wife gets back from going anywhere with the kids there is a sippy cup on top of the car. (We have a Subaru with those bars on top that prevent things like sippy cups from falling off.)
Literally, on more occasions than I can count, she has driven 10+ miles ON THE GS PARKWAY with a sippy cup on the top of our car. As long as it’s not the car seat on top of the car, it’s cool…
As a work-from-home mom with two, I regularly have half-insane moments. Lately, my bad mom moments have been when I walked away from my daughter’s school with her backpack and lunch, when I’ve had to take not one, but two conference calls during drop-off/pickup time (I simply prayed I didn’t have to speak when I was actually in earshot of the school and bribed my daughter to be absolutely quiet).
With mid-term papers to grade, I’d pick up my son from daycare and drive home the long way. He’d fall asleep, and I’d move to the passenger side, push back the seat, and grade my papers there for two hours. It was the only way I knew he’d stay asleep and I’d get the papers done before 3 AM.