Review: Operating Instructions

“How on earth can anyone bring a child into this world knowing full well that he or she is eventually going to have to go through the seventh and eighth grades?” from Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year by Anne Lamott

I loved this book. It was recommended to me soon after I gave birth, but for some inexplicable reason I remained number three on the library's waiting list for the last 10 months. Now that I switched libraries, I put it on hold there and got it in less than a week.

I wish I had been able to read it before giving birth--and every day in the first few months of being a first time mom. Instead of being inundated with how to books and articles on parenting an infant, I wish I had just had this brutally honest account from one neurotic first time mom to reassure me that I was not the only neurotic first time mom. I'll certainly read it again.

A word of caution--although I loved this book and wish I could recommend it to every mother I know, be aware that there is a lot of cursing in it and if that bothers you, this book is not for you. I personally don't know how anyone gets through the first three months of a child's life without cursing a bit, but I know many people are more sensitive to it than I am.

Whether you read this book or not, here are a couple quotes I gleaned from it:

On the postpartum body:
“People kept trying to prepare me for how soft and mushy my stomach would be after I gave birth, but I secretly thought, Not this old bukerina. … Oh, but my stomach, she is like a waterbed covered with flannel now. When I lie on my side in bed, my stomach lies politely beside me, like a puppy.”

On breastfeeding:
“It’s mind-boggling that my body knows how to churn out this milk that he is growing on. … I’m going to have an awards banquet for my body when all of this is over.”