WyattMacKenzie Releases MuchAnticipated A Suburban Mom Notes from the Asylum by Popular Humor Writer Meredith OBrien

Today'ss mothers are relentlessly sent mixed messages: Be attractive and sexy, but not too sexy. Take care of your babies by making sure they'sre breastfed and monitored at every moment, only don'st breastfeed outside of the house or you might upset people. Stay home with the children when they'sre young, but don'st forget to be a strong feminist role model by seeking out paid employment that gets you out of the house.

Alongside the barrage of mixed messages, suburban parents are hounded by sometimes irrational paranoia: Make sure your home is childproofed, professionally, if possible, in order to keep dangers at bay. Only feed your kids organic foods and don'st let them watch TV lest your offspring become sedentary, obese and stupid. And parents should not, under any circumstances, argue in front of their children, because, according to experts, they could emotionally damage their offspring for life.

Author Meredith O'sBrien has had enough of the messages, the paranoia and the advice-givers.

In A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum (Wyatt-MacKenzie, Jan. 22, 2007) O'sBrien gives the out of control demands and expectations placed on suburban mom s and dads a reality check.

This collection of 76 essays is organized in five categories: Motherhood, etc.; Pregnancy, Birth & Other Bloody Things; Growing Pains; On the Home Front, and Random Ramblings. O'sBrien writes about subjects as varied as questioning why fashionistas try to convince pregnant women that maternity thong underwear is a good investment; how difficult it is to maintain a sex life while three kids pound outside of their parents's locked bedroom door; how to look cool while driving a mini-van (a clue: you can'st) and what to do when your child is discovered eating trash and other unspeakable substances.

A former reporter for The Boston Herald, O'sBrien was a co-author of The Buying of the President (Avon, 1996). An adjunct faculty member at the University of Massachusetts Journalism Program, she has written more than a dozen magazine articles about the media.

In the world of parenting journalism, O'sBrien is a contributing writer to the Boston area publication, Parents and Kids (http://www.parentsandkids.net). She also writes about the portrayal of working moms in popular culture and media in weekly Working Moms in Pop Culture & Politics columns on Mommy Track'sd (http://www.mommytrackd.com/survivalguide.phpid=10) and (http://www.mommytrackd.com/hottopics_detail.phpid=20). Her work has appeared in a number of parenting periodicals and web sites including: Chicago Parent, DallasChild, Baby Years Magazine, FamilyMan.com DotMoms, BabyZone.com and ClubMom.

O'sBrien lives in a suburb of Boston with her three children - ages 8, 8 and 5 - and her husband Scott.

A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum Release date: January 22, 2006, paperback, $16.00, 304 pages, ISBN: 978-1-932279-51-1, Parenting, Humor, Essays, Motherhood.

Advanced praise for A Suburban Mom:

In A Suburban Mom: Notes from the Asylum, Meredith O'sBrien has given every mom something she desperately needs amid today'ss world of 'sperfect parents's - a wonderful dose of reality, along with lots of laughs! -- Betsy Hart, nationally syndicated columnist and author of It Takes a Parent: How the Culture of Pushover Parenting is Hurting Our Kids and What to Do About It.

Meredith O'sBrien has written one of the most refreshingly honest, hilarious, poignant, and searingly true parenting books that I have read of late. From hiding from her twin toddlers in order to down a couple uninterrupted bites of breakfast bagel to the vein throbbing on her forehead as other parents start brag about their children'ss amazing accomplishments: I kept thinking been there, did that. Plus, everyone around me wanted to know what I was laughing about as I read! Do not even try to be a sane suburban Mom without reading these Notes from the Asylum! -- Stacy DeBroff, founder of www.MomCentral.com, author of The Mom Book: 4,378 Tips for Moms, and Today Show parenting expert.

Meredith O'sBrien'ss 'sAsylum's is a sweet, funny and fearless place. -- Heidi Raykeil, author of Confessions of a Naughty Mommy, and columnist and editor at literarymama.com.

Written with warmth, humor and wisdom, A Suburban Mom is clever, inspiring and will make you proud to be a mother. Meredith O'sBrien dares to trust her instincts and does so hysterically. A great gift for every mom who needs some comic relief. -- Paula Schmitt, award-winning author of Living in a Locker Room and editor, Mom Writer'ss Literary Magazine

WyattMacKenzie Releases MuchAnticipated A Suburban Mom Notes from the Asylum by Popular Humor Writer Meredith OBrien

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WyattMacKenzie Releases MuchAnticipated A Suburban Mom Notes from the Asylum by Popular Humor Writer Meredith OBrien

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