Virtual Book Tour: IT'S A BOY!
And now something completely different.
A few of my readers might know Andrea J. Buchanan through her website, literarymama.com, or Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It. She recently edited It's a Boy! Women Writers on Raising Sons for Seal Press. It's a compliation of women talking about being mothers to sons and it's truly fascinating.
Getting the book in the mail was enlightening. For one, it worked on Adam like garlic on a vampire. "Are you resorting to not-so-subtle cues now?" he asked, poking the edge of the book with a pen, because touching it? Might infect him with the baby.
No, I told him. Andi had sent it to me as part of the Virtual Book Tour happening in November. He looked at it. "Well, I guess it's okay."
Of course it's okay, but we'll get to that.
Lately it seems like my friends and family embarking on parenting have been having boys. My cousin is pregnant with her second; a friend is absolutely positive she'll be giving birth to her first next spring, and another friend just welcomed a son. Our next door neighbors have three rambunctious boys. The panda at the national zoo? Boy.
We are surrounded by the next generation of men.
Before we knew of this influx of boys, I would picture these mothers as mothers of girls. I'd see them swathed in the pink feathers and seed pearls of tea parties, or shopping for doll houses and My First Craftsman tool sets and laughing about how Strawberry Shortcake came back just in time to delight the second generation. Whether it was gender loyalty or imposing my own maternal longing, I did not envision these women as mothers to boys.
When my father hears that someone else is going to have a boy, he says, "It'll be an interesting life." My neighbor's advice is easier. "Just slap a Band Aid on anything bleeding and let them go." Other sentiments are echoed in the book: "Boys love their mothers differently than girls."
My mother-in-law talks about the joy of raising Adam. "He was just the best little boy," she says wistfully, and you can see it in her eyes, how having a boy changed her life.
I don't want to sound drippy about the miracle of boys; I don't want to do a gender-flipped cover of John Mayer's "Daughters." But darn it...let's hear it for the boys.
It's a long time before we'll be thinking about expanding our own family, but I think I'd be okay with a boy. They're making awesome Transformers these days.
IT'S A BOY! Women Writers on Raising Sons at Amazon
Literarymama.com
Andi Buchanan's Website
A few of my readers might know Andrea J. Buchanan through her website, literarymama.com, or Mother Shock: Loving Every (Other) Minute of It. She recently edited It's a Boy! Women Writers on Raising Sons for Seal Press. It's a compliation of women talking about being mothers to sons and it's truly fascinating.
Getting the book in the mail was enlightening. For one, it worked on Adam like garlic on a vampire. "Are you resorting to not-so-subtle cues now?" he asked, poking the edge of the book with a pen, because touching it? Might infect him with the baby.
No, I told him. Andi had sent it to me as part of the Virtual Book Tour happening in November. He looked at it. "Well, I guess it's okay."
Of course it's okay, but we'll get to that.
Lately it seems like my friends and family embarking on parenting have been having boys. My cousin is pregnant with her second; a friend is absolutely positive she'll be giving birth to her first next spring, and another friend just welcomed a son. Our next door neighbors have three rambunctious boys. The panda at the national zoo? Boy.
We are surrounded by the next generation of men.
Before we knew of this influx of boys, I would picture these mothers as mothers of girls. I'd see them swathed in the pink feathers and seed pearls of tea parties, or shopping for doll houses and My First Craftsman tool sets and laughing about how Strawberry Shortcake came back just in time to delight the second generation. Whether it was gender loyalty or imposing my own maternal longing, I did not envision these women as mothers to boys.
When my father hears that someone else is going to have a boy, he says, "It'll be an interesting life." My neighbor's advice is easier. "Just slap a Band Aid on anything bleeding and let them go." Other sentiments are echoed in the book: "Boys love their mothers differently than girls."
My mother-in-law talks about the joy of raising Adam. "He was just the best little boy," she says wistfully, and you can see it in her eyes, how having a boy changed her life.
I don't want to sound drippy about the miracle of boys; I don't want to do a gender-flipped cover of John Mayer's "Daughters." But darn it...let's hear it for the boys.
It's a long time before we'll be thinking about expanding our own family, but I think I'd be okay with a boy. They're making awesome Transformers these days.
IT'S A BOY! Women Writers on Raising Sons at Amazon
Literarymama.com
Andi Buchanan's Website
