So, its TWG’s turn to host ‘Why Mummy Doesn’t Give A #*!?’ today. Many thanks to Lucy and the HarperNonFic team for the blog tour invite and ARC. I am delighted to share my review this evening.
Family begins with a capital eff.
I’m wondering how many more f*cking ‘phases’ I have to endure before my children become civilised and functioning members of society? It seems like people have been telling me ‘it’s just a phase!’ for the last fifteen bloody years. Not sleeping through the night is ‘just a phase.’ Potty training and the associated accidents ‘is just a phase’. The tantrums of the terrible twos are ‘just a phase’. The picky eating, the back chat, the obsessions. The toddler refusals to nap, the teenage inability to leave their beds before 1pm without a rocket being put up their arse. The endless singing of Frozen songs, the dabbing, the weeks where apparently making them wear pants was akin to child torture. All ‘just phases!’ When do the ‘phases’ end though? WHEN?
Mummy dreams of a quirky rural cottage with roses around the door and chatty chickens in the garden. Life, as ever, is not going quite as she planned. Paxo, Oxo and Bisto turn out to be highly rambunctious, rather than merely chatty, and the roses have jaggy thorns. Her precious moppets are now giant teenagers, and instead of wittering at her about who would win in a fight – a dragon badger or a ninja horse – they are Snapchatting the night away, stropping around the tiny cottage and communicating mainly in grunts – except when they are demanding Ellen provides taxi services in the small hours. And there is never, but never, any milk in the house. At least the one thing they can all agree on is that rescued Barry the Wolfdog may indeed be The Ugliest Dog in the World, but he is also the loveliest.
What does TWG think?
Parents of teenagers will be saluting Gill Sims after reading this. I, however, have decided to run away and hide until the teenage years are gone forever seeing as I have another 7 years until my daughter only reaches that stage!
I thought that I was a bloody awesome teenager, but maybe I was looking through rose tinted glasses and ended up being an absolute knob, I don’t know. I’m too afraid to ask my mum! I have no idea how Ellen didn’t run crying everytime Jane shouted that she hated her. I mean, I was even wounded and she wasn’t saying it to me!!
I couldn’t help but laugh out loud at the sheer bonkerness of this book, both due to the apt humour and eye opening honesty. Take Hannah for example – if you ever want to teach your children how to practice safe sex (alongside the obvious btw), just get them to read the parts where Hannah talks about pregnancy….
Hell. I’ve had a baby and even I was put off! I jest. I would love another one…but maybe I’m only saying that because I haven’t endured the teenage years. Isn’t it as much of a ‘Teenage Dream’ as Katy Perry shrieks?
Judgy and Barry were bloody brilliant. Never have I ever read a book where the dogs end up being the top notch characters in the book above the actual people. I think a petition should be started for the dogs to have their own spin off! That is if Jane can let Barry out of her room!
I really enjoyed this breath of fresh air, highly relatable read. The humour was second to none and the honesty was both humourous and poignant. Gill Sims may have spent a lot of time creating characters which seemed to have shouting matches with their kids 24/7, but she still managed to keep her readers grounded with the thought provoking parts about living life with no regrets, allowing yourself to change through choice and not because someone else made you, and to take time out to just breathe and be.
At first I thought that this book was going to be a constant stream of family wranglings and diva-ish tantrums, however it turned out to be an enlightening, giggle fest of a book…..alongside those family wranglings ;).
About the author.
Gill Sims is the author of the hugely successful parenting blog and Facebook site ‘Peter and Jane’. Her first book Why Mummy Drinks was the bestselling hardback fiction debut of 2017, spending over six months in the top ten of the Sunday Times Bestseller Charts, and was shortlisted for Debut Novel of the Year in the British Book Awards. Her second novel Why Mummy Swears spent seven weeks at number one in the Sunday Times Bestseller Charts, and 19 weeks in the top ten.
She lives in Scotland with her husband, two children and a recalcitrant Border Terrier, who rules the house.
Gill’s interests include drinking wine, wasting time on social media, trying and failing to capture her lost youth, and looking for the dog when he decides to go on one of his regular jaunts.
The Writing Garnet 
I love these books! My sister who hasn’t read a book since school has started reading because of these books!
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