4.5 Star
Joy has just given birth to Zach and is completely in love with her new son- exhausted but in love. As we meet her she’s just beginning to realize that there’s just no longer enough time to do anything but take care of this baby. No time for washing, cooking or checking email… let alone time for her husband or herself. Her husband is becoming more and more distant and is completely ignoring the fact that he even has a son, let alone a wife that really needs his help. As she starts to lose control of ever getting back to her old life she has to examine everything else around her to find out what her future holds.
Lydia - 4.5 Star
I loved This Little Mommy Stayed Home and laughed out loud from the first page right through to the end, and I haven’t even had a baby. I do know many women who have in the last year though so I’ve heard all the stories and many of them are told in Wilde’s novel from the good, the bad and the ugly.
This wasn’t just a novel about being a new mom, but about the main character, Joy, finding herself amidst the chaos of motherhood including the lack of sleep, piles of laundry and a new dynamic with her increasingly distant husband. Add her newly engaged mother, a smothering mother in law and a resurfacing ex-boyfriend to the mix and we find Joy struggling to figure out just what she wants out of her new life. Every new mother should read this book. Perhaps even their baby-less friends and husbands to get a glimpse of what their friends or wives are going through.
There were times that I wasn’t sure about Joy’s character which is my only complaint. She was so self-absorbed at times that it became hard to take (possibly my own fertility issues skewed my opinions here), but about half way through the novel we find out exactly why she was so grumpy with her husband and she rounds out as she comes to a few realizations along the way.
This novel was well written and Wilde’s descriptive flair was vivid throughout with descriptions and comparisons I found unusual, but accurate. Several are still with me, making me jealous that I didn’t think of them first!
If you want a laugh out loud, interesting and absorbing read on new motherhood check out This Little Mommy Stayed Home. I will definitely be seeking out Wilde’s novels in the future.
Kathryn - 4.5 Star
I absolutely loved the concept of this book! I just had my first child last winter so could relate to everything she was writing about first hand- however I don’t think that this book is only entertaining for a current mummy- it’s full of useful insights into marriage and finding oneself too so don’t be put off if you’re not right in the midst of the baby thing at the moment.
I was hooked from the very first pages of This Little Mommy Stayed Home as it doesn’t seem so long ago that I was in the same predicament of trying to keep a house while tending to an infant. I tried to cook dinner while breastfeeding once (and I didn’t have one of those pillows that attaches around your waist) and realized that this was just going to end in tears- mine and hers. We ate a lot of soup and meals brought by fabulous family members for the first 3 months! There were a lot mummy moments that were funny and earnest which I related to instantly. Unfortunately about half way through I found that I lost interest a bit in the main character- possibly because she seemed determined to try and find something or someone else to make her herself again. I realize that this is part of the story but it left me bored. However once I reached the end and put it all in perspective I decided to let this go and appreciate how well Samantha Wilde picked out pieces of motherhood (and fatherhood) for us to laugh about…now. I wasn’t always laughing when it was happening to me!
Connect with Samantha Wilde:
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