Sometimes when I’m traveling or between novels, I pick up a “Chicken Soup” book. For those of you who have never read one, they are anthologies of essays on a particular topic. They range from books on parenting and cancer to being a pet lover. My favorite thing about the entire series is that you can read them for a few minutes whenever you get the chance. Essays range from approximately 1 to 6 pages.
While at the store the other day, I bought “Chicken Soup for the Working Mom’s Soul”. I found it relevant reading given that I have been a working mother since the day my first daughter was born.
At first, I loved the book. Some of the essays dealt with working at home mothers, which applied to me. I was literally laughing out loud at some of the stuff that was written. Then the book took a turn that confused me a bit. One of the chapters was about how being a mother is a job. Without going into that argument, it was strange that it appeared in the book because the essays were about women who quit their jobs to stay home with their children. Perhaps they wanted to make sure that under the heading “Working Mothers” they included those whose job it is to be a mother? I’m not sure, but the trials seemed out of the flow of others.
Then I came to an essay that really hit me. It started like this: “When I tell another mom I work from home and she says, ‘Oh, that must be the ideal situation,’ I know one thing about her, even if we’ve never met before. She doesn’t now, nor has she ever worked from home.” I’ve met that woman 50 times I think, and she’s always made the same comment!
The book got me back on track and I found myself excited to read about moms I could totally relate to. These were the moms who do the same balancing and juggling that I do on a daily basis. They are probably the same moms who are happy to pick up a book that they can read for 5 minutes at a time and enjoy.
You should be able to buy “Chicken Soup for the Working Mom’s Soul” (by Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen, and Patty Aubery) at any bookstore, including Borders, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. If you are a working mom, you will absolutely identify with many of the essays and will cry and laugh along with the authors.