Work has been extremely stressful the past couple of
months. How to Raise a Smart Ass has been a perfect book to curl up to at night
and get a good laugh. Lucia tells her
personal story of raising two young daughters with a new brother on the
way. Lucia is a professional taking the
bar exam in many states as their young family moves from southern California to
New York to Virginia and finally Oklahoma.
As a working mother myself, I identified strongly with Lucia trying to
balance both life and raising a child. I
also worked from home the first six years of my oldest son’s life, so I particularly
identified with the chapter “working parent.”
I loved that How to Raise a Smart Ass is told in short
vignettes that are perfect for e-book reading and for giving me a quick laugh
before passing out in exhaustion each night.
As a mother, I loved that Walinchus told everything with no holds barred,
from the excitement of being pregnant and realizing that you can eat whatever
you want for nine months to just how much time you spend breast feeding when
you breast feed your baby.
There were so many excellent stories and quotes in
this book, but I’ve picked out a few of my favorites to share:
“We moved into a house that a 90-year old woman had
just moved out of because we thought the optimal design aesthetic should be ‘What
would Michael Jackson do?’”
“I drove to Roanoke, Virginia, to take the bar,
because why have a bar exam in the most populated part of the state when you can
inconvenience everyone with a fun road trip to nowhere?”
“At first you have children for high and lofty
reasons. You get to sculpt a part of the
teach generation. You get to teach a
child what it means to be a responsible, honorable, industrious person in
society.
You probably also have the equally laudable goal of
producing a new cadre of helpers for your house. Imagine, tiny things that you can create who
will bring you a beer. Dishwashers! Oh, the possibilities.
But then they actually come out and you stop imagining
what your child could do for others, and wonder if they will do things for
themselves. Maybe, just maybe, you tell
yourself . . . I can get my kid to wipe her own ass.”
“Like any good middle-class American parent, I have
high hopes of my kid going to college someday.
Which is why I put them in sports early.
How else will we afford it?”
“As a kid, I thought, the Christmas season is SO
long. How will I ever wait until
Christmas? As an adult I think, the
Christmas season is SO short. How will I
ever get all this crap done before Christmas?”
Overall, How to Raise a Smart Ass is a witty, funny,
book that any parent will relate to and enjoy.
I highly recommend it!
