Mother Shock

Book excerpt: According to Andrea Buchanan, "Mother shock" is the state in which many new parents exist during those first confusing, chaotic and often comical years of parenting. It is the clash between expectation and result, theory and reality. It is the twilight zone of 24-hour-a-day living; where life is no longer neatly divided into day and night; the triple-impact of hormonal imbalance, sleep deprivation, and physical exhaustion. It is the stress of trying to acclimate quickly to the immediacy of mothering; a new conception of oneself, one’s role in the family and in the world; a fearful new level of responsibility, and a new delegation of domestic duties. In this much-needed and delightfully funny collection of essays, Buchanan shares the insight she gains as she moves through the stages of mother shock. From "Fear of the Double Stroller" and "Confessions of a Bottle Feeder" to "I’m an Idiot" and "Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Playgroup," Buchanan details the unimaginably difficult and unbelievably rewarding process of becoming a mother.