Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater! Ahhhh, the 1940s and '50s . . . a time when parents everywhere strove for the American Dream--manicured lawns, a shiny car in the driveway, and perfect children playing in the yard. Raising kids was simpler back then, or was it? In Mommy Knows Worst, you'll be treated to a visual feast of past parenting neuroses--as well as insight into why concerned moms and dads were driven to buy "delicious" baby laxatives, douse their baby in oil and put him in the sun, and strap Junior into a car seat that bore a strange resemblance to scrap metal. If you're a baby boomer who lived through this childhood torture, well, we're sorry. But if humor really is the best medicine (rather than bicarbonate of curd and mustard plaster, as was previously recommended for childhood ailments), then Mommy Knows Worst is cheaper than therapy. Photographs, advertisements, magazine articles, and government-issue parenting guides, which seemed so helpful in their day, are given a whole new slant by the master of the genre, James Lileks. Mommy Knows Worst is a rollicking tribute to old-fashioned parenting that gives us a whole new reason not to forget our past--it's hilarious!
From the author of The Gallery of Regrettable Food comes a horrifying-yet-hysterical book dedicated to the expert parenting advice from previous generations. Each glossy page includes vintage print ads and photos accompanied by James Lilek's mean comments. But then, what other response is possible, when faced with cough syrup advertisement with a happy child exclaiming, "A cough syrup good enough to eat with ice cream"!
General categories include "Clothing and Accessories" (including a pattern to make a headband that binds protruding ears to babies' heads), "Bowels" (featuring an ad with the text, "If he spanks me again, I'm going to run away from home"), and "The Good Old Days", which offers several detailed options for creating a home delivery center. In every chapter, Lilek's comments are the equivalent of cracks from your most sarcastic friend.
For any new parent who's tired of modern advice books, or expecting parents in need of a touch of humor amidst the stress of pregnancy, look no further. Every page has a laugh, and every page will remind the reader that sooner or later, almost all parenting advice will end up having the same worth as what's included here. Jill Lightner
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Lileks...wears thin after a while:
I guess the joke has worn thin, and sometimes Lileks misses the irony and goes after some other things that can be too much like inside jokes that aren't all that funny.
Another winner!:
Another winner for James Lileks, whose work is hilarious, bordering on hysterical. Even after having read this and other works of Mr. Lileks before, when I read them again, I cannot stop laughing. Do check out his website, too. It's just as funny.
Mommy Knows Worst:
This is one of the funniest books I have read. I grew up during this period and agree with the author that "it's a miracle Dick and Jane survived." You will laugh until you cry. It is a fun book that can be passed on to your own children.
Somehow we all survived our childhood:
James Lileks is one of this era's masters of comedic commentary. Unlike old whats his face (Dave Berry, Erma Bombeck, et. al.) who writes comedy, Lileks excels at quips, naming conventions, and often times finding cultural jewels that beg for recogition after years on the great trash heap of disposable ephemeria. He is a wit of great talent. Mommy Knows Worst is collection of child raising items and nostrums that mothers have believed, practiced, purchased for us, their children since the turn of the... more info
