Motherhood can be the toughest – and funniest – job you’ll ever have. Raising kids is hard work, but humor can make the journey a little easier - even if you just have to laugh to keep from crying. In The Motherhood Diaries 2, National Bestselling Author, ReShonda Tate Billingsley, uses personal anecdotes from her zoo - formerly known as a family - to show how humor helps her navigate the minefield of motherhood. This laugh-out-loud read portrays the truths about motherhood that we are either too ashamed or too proud to admit. Through heartwarming and hilarious tales of motherhood, ReShonda and other mothers share their joys, pains, and everything in between. From Tia McCollors, who shows you how to pull life lessons from embarrassing moments; to Gina Johnson, whose circus puts Ringling Brothers to shame; to Janoah White, who learned to let laughter help her deal with a son who has autism; to Denise Leora Madre’s hilarious story on how motherhood shattered her naiveté - there’s something relatable for mothers from all walks of life. Then, stories from mothers like Naleighna Kai will show you how to find faith in the midst of motherhood; Nikki Woods, whose inspiring story will have you wanting to rethink your family legacy; and Regina Cooper, whose Diary of a Mortified Mom will have you double-checking those locks the next time you want to squeeze in quality time with your mate. In all, twenty-five mothers share stories that will help you accept the insanity of motherhood and learn to laugh about it in the process. Finding humor in the raw honesty of life as a mother is a survival mechanism for most of us, and these moms will help you see you’re not alone in this refreshing, hilarious take on motherhood.

Billingsley openly shares stories about her children: twelve-year-old Mya, the diva who searched the internet for the president of Justice department store, then called his personal line to tell him why would be crazy not to let her model for him'; to ten-year-old Morgan, who has a serious case of middle-child syndrome and a knack for falling asleep in the strangest places (the pantry, the dryer, the attic); and finally, five-year-old Myles, who as his grandmother says, 'has been here before.''

Cartoon Cathy meets Erma Bombeck in this hilarious collection of short stories that will keep you laughing and crying from cover to cover. Christine Hohlbaum reels you into the world of child mayhem as she recounts tales of life with small children. From potty-training to the magic of Santa Claus, this book tells all about the ups and downs of parenting. A splendid addition to your leisure reading list!

The funniest, most popular kid in school, Charles Aubrey Rogers suffered from depression and later addiction, then ultimately died by suicide. "Diary of a Broken Mind" focuses on the relatable story of what lead to his suicide at age twenty and answers the "why" behind his addiction and this cause of death, revealed through both a mother's story and years of Charles' published and unpublished song lyrics. The closing chapters focus on hope and healing-and how the author found her purpose and forgave herself.

"Another book! He hasn't been as tenacious as this since we kicked him out of house at sixteen and he spent an hour trying to get back in." - his mother. "He reckons he's been writing this junk for five years. Anyone with a single grain of propriety would have stopped after the first one - or even before." - Graham Windlass, Nottingham. "We've been waiting for this. I had the last one sent through the post because someone, probably him, said it would be worth a read. I knew I wasn't wasting my time nailing shut our letterbox." - Name supplied, Swindon. "If Edward Snowden had found this stuff in the darkened recesses of some government top secret files he would have left it there." - R. Griffiths, Northants.

A raw, funny, and fiercely honest account of becoming a mother before feeling like a grown up. When Meaghan O'Connell got accidentally pregnant in her twenties and decided to keep the baby, she realized that the book she needed -- a brutally honest, agenda-free reckoning with the emotional and existential impact of motherhood -- didn't exist. So she decided to write it herself. And Now We Have Everything is O'Connell's exploration of the cataclysmic, impossible-to-prepare-for experience of becoming a mother. With her dark humor and hair-trigger B.S. detector, O'Connell addresses the pervasive imposter syndrome that comes with unplanned pregnancy, the fantasies of a "natural" birth experience that erode maternal self-esteem, post-partum body and sex issues, and the fascinating strangeness of stepping into a new, not-yet-comfortable identity. Channeling fears and anxieties that are still taboo and often unspoken, And Now We Have Everything is an unflinchingly frank, funny, and visceral motherhood story for our times, about having a baby and staying, for better or worse, exactly yourself. Smart, funny, and true in all the best ways, this book made me ache with recognition." -- Cheryl Strayed

How did mothers transform from parents of secondary importance in the colonies to having their multiple and complex roles connected to the well-being of the nation? In the first comprehensive history of motherhood in the United States, Jodi Vandenberg-Daves explores how tensions over the maternal role have been part and parcel of the development of American society. Modern Motherhood travels through redefinitions of motherhood over time, as mothers encountered a growing cadre of medical and psychological experts, increased their labor force participation, gained the right to vote, agitated for more resources to perform their maternal duties, and demonstrated their vast resourcefulness in providing for and nurturing their families. Navigating rigid gender role prescriptions and a crescendo of mother-blame by the middle of the twentieth century, mothers continued to innovate new ways to combine labor force participation and domestic responsibilities. By the 1960s, they were poised to challenge male expertise, in areas ranging from welfare and abortion rights to childbirth practices and the confinement of women to maternal roles. In the twenty-first century, Americans continue to struggle with maternal contradictions, as we pit an idealized role for mothers in children’s development against the social and economic realities of privatized caregiving, a paltry public policy structure, and mothers’ extensive employment outside the home. Building on decades of scholarship and spanning a wide range of topics, Vandenberg-Daves tells an inclusive tale of African American, Native American, Asian American, working class, rural, and other hitherto ignored families, exploring sources ranging from sermons, medical advice, diaries and letters to the speeches of impassioned maternal activists. Chapter topics include: inventing a new role for mothers; contradictions of moral motherhood; medicalizing the maternal body; science, expertise, and advice to mothers; uplifting and controlling mothers; modern reproduction; mothers’ resilience and adaptation; the middle-class wife and mother; mother power and mother angst; and mothers’ changing lives and continuous caregiving. While the discussion has been part of all eras of American history, the discussion of the meaning of modern motherhood is far from over.

Someway, somehow, women find themselves branded and rejected by society. The shameful title of deadbeat mom, carries no weight as to what the actual truth of the matter is. What mother could leave her children for sex, drugs and alcohol? This book is the story of a woman who once did just that and overcame that title. The road to reclaiming motherhood is treacherous. There is a reality to face and in a world of instant gratification, this takes time. Success and results don't come instantaneously but with this book, you have entered into a Divine set up. Through this story, you will gain hope in knowing that you are not alone. Victory is attainable and you are victorious. Today is the first day of the rest of your life and rear view mirrors are made small for a reason. Put your hiking boots on and take the first step up what seems to be an unclimbable mountain. The families and loved ones affected by addiction will also gain hope in hearing what goes through the mind of a deadbeat mom. When I first began the journey of writing this book, I didn't know that it would take the path of throwing out a life raft to the loved ones. You may be tired and you may want to give up and that is understandable. What I want you to know is, although you don't know me, I have been praying for you for quite some time.

A Mother's Diary: How to Survive the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit is a firsthand account of one woman's journey. It represents the struggle of thousands of women every year whose babies begin life in the N.I.C.U. Menetra Hathorn writes the entire book from her perspective - a mother's point of view. She begins by introducing you, the reader, to her world and giving some background information about how her journey began. Next, you walk with her the rest of the way - through a slow and tedious hospitalization. Then, she names and discusses 10 strategies that will help you survive the N.I.C.U. (and beyond). Finally, she shares some valuable insight with relatives and friends while recommending a variety of ways that they can help. A Mother's Diary: How to Survive the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit was written because Mrs. Hathorn was unable to find anything like it during her third child's 119-day hospitalization. She wanted to know that she wasn't alone, and she needed some common sense strategies she could implement to help save herself from drowning in a sea of grief, depression, and anxiety.

The first dedicated volume of its kind, Visualizing Digital Discourse brings together sociolinguists and discourse analysts examining the role of visual communication in digital media. The volume showcases work from leading, established and emerging scholars from across Europe, covering a diverse range of digital media platforms such as messaging, video-chat, gaming and wikis; visual modalities such as emojis, video and layout; methodologies like discourse analysis, ethnography and conversation analysis; as well as data from different languages. With an opening chapter by Rodney Jones, the volume is organized into three parts: Besides Words and Writing, The Social Life of Images, and Designing Multimodal Texts. From the perspective of these broad domains, chapters tackle some of the major ideological, interactional and institutional implications of visuality for digital discourse studies. The first part, beginning with a co-authored chapter by Crispin Thurlow, focuses on micro-level visual practices and their macro-level framing – all with particular regard for emojis. The second part, beginning with a chapter from Sirpa Leppänen, examines the ways visual resources are used for managing personal relations, and the wider cultural politics of visual representation in these practices. The third part, beginning with a chapter by Hartmut Stöckl, considers organizational contexts where users deploy visual resources for more transactional, often commercial ends.