Table of Contents
Foreword Christy Turlington Burns ix
Introduction xiii
Part I Mama, Don't Fail Me Now…
Ichabod's Ghost Abby Sher 21
My Little Early Perfect Stephanie Kaloi 27
The Unapologetic No Soraya Chemaly 33
Parenting Without a Rope Heather Hewett 41
Mama Don't Cook Carla Naumburg 49
The Hallowed Life of an Agnostic Mother Victoria Brooke Rodrigues 57
When Our Hearts Walk Outside of Our Bodies Jessica Valenti 65
Yes, I Am That Selfish Avital Norman Nathman 69
Part II In The Mama Trenches
The Good Enough Mother Nerissa Nields 77
Another Way to End the Evening Andie Fox 83
Climbers Deborah Siegel 89
Is This Motherhood or Middle School? Naomi Shulman 97
There's a Zombie Cavewoman in All of Us Amber Dusick 103
No More Fakebook Sarah Emily Tuttle-Singer 107
Oh Father, Where Art Thou? Lisa Duggan 113
Part III Inside Mama's Mind
An Existential Crisis is Born Aly Windsor 121
Through Distortion Arwyn Daemyir 129
Down the Rabbit Hole Anne-Marie Lindsey 135
Failure to Launch Kimberly Morand 141
The Peculiar Curse of Mentally 111 Motherhood Shannon Drury 147
Part IV Mama By Any Other Name
The Invisible Mother Shay Stewart-Bouley 155
The Adoption Aisle Sarah Werthan Buttenwieser 163
Confessions of a Born-Bad Mother Joy Ladin 171
The Impossibility of the Good Black Mother T. F. Charlton 177
Not Your Average Teen Mother Elizabeth Crossen 185
All the Single Ladies Jennifer Baumgardner 193
The Way It's Supposed to Be Kristen Oganowski 201
Part V "No Good" Mama
Joint Parenting Pauline Abraham 209
The End of Cute Sharon Lerner 213
The Macaroni and Cheese Dilemma Liz Henry 221
Making Time for Lust Erika Lust 227
To Be Real Candace Walsh 231
Lucky American Girl K. J. Dellantonia 237
My Online Life as a (Not So) Lesbian Mama Christina Soletti 245
When Good Mothers Come From Bad Ones Gina Crosley-Corcoran 253
Give Me My 'A' In Scarlet Tara Jean Bernier 261