Rating: 
Summary: Ridiculous Excuses - The Book is the Myth
Review: This book is simply a comfort tool for those mothers, like the authors, who wish to either have their children treated like cattle in the childcare system or hire a Nanny to be a surrogate mommy and do all the things the "myth" claims mothers should do. Although there are things in the book all mothers can relate to, the condescending way that stay-at-home mothers are talked about in this book speaks volumes as to the authors' agenda. I am a conservative democrat and in no way associate myself with extreme right-wingers, I am just a mother that knows, based on facts and society as a whole, what is best for my children. The truth is that if you are just going to have children so that you can resent them and have someone else be their mommy you shouldn't have them at all. Children are not trophies, nor are they there to fulfill YOUR needs, they are precious gifts that need to be nurtured, protected and above else know that they are not resented. Do not be fooled by this book, just because these two anti-feminist (yes to be a feminist means you embrace what is feminine) authors can make a few bucks blowing off their own guilt on to you, doesn't make them experts or good mothers.
Rating: 
Summary: Helped me decide to quit my job and stay home with my baby!
Review: This book is very amusing, at times, but it is primarily a rather ugly book. It left a bad taste in my mouth. I am still working full-time but felt embarassed to be reading this book on the train in the morning. I have been reading lots of "mommy" books, on both sides of the fence, trying to decide whether to stop working. This book did help me decide to do just that, though I know that was not its intent.
Rating: 
Summary: A social commentary - not a parenting book
Review: This book is written with refreshing honesty and great depth of knowledge and consideration of context and history. I don't believe that this book's intent is to "let mothers off the hook." It is simply a very well researched and well constructed social commentary about a subject that is extremely volatile and systematically overlooked. if you are looking for a parenting book, as some of the reviewers appear to be, then you will be dissapointed. this is a book by women about being a woman in the complex and often conflicted world in which we all must live. i can't recommend this book more and offer my appreciation and congratulations to the authors.
Rating:
Summary: A must-read
Review: This book offers a highly critical take on the quite complex and often misrepresented topic of motherhood in America. Readers with a pre-set view of feminists as men-hating, vociferous anti-motherhood mongerers will be highly disappointed. In their rather amusing narrative, the authors trace the origins of the mythologization of motherhood in contemporary America, while showing - through ample documentary evidence - how the status enjoyed by most women in the US today is the direct result of the struggles and sacrifices of a generation of feminists now reviled in the US media. Readers who have argued in their reviews that this is an anti-feminist book and that the authors "attack" motherhood must have certainly read a different edition (or perhaps read through different lenses). Both authors are mothers themselves (in fact, one of them is the mother of FIVE children), as well as self-professed feminist intellectuals and academics. Their approach to motherhood is thus based on a rather apt combination of scholarly probity and their own personal experience as mothers. Ultimately, this book is a significant contribution for anyone interested in understanding how American families (women, men, and children alike) are being crushed under the heavy weight of an idealized, unrealistic, and highly glamourized potrayal of motherhood that is based on the unrealistic expectation that, to be a worthy woman, one must not only be a mother, but an excellent one: cook, human resources manager, accountant, cleaner, etc. etc. etc., all with no salary, no benefits, and no vacation. A must read for any person who has ever pondered about the inhumane nature of our society and its unfair treatment of its most oppressed class: mothers.
Rating:
Summary: Mommy Myth : Why America is to Blame
Review: This book opens promisingly and teases the reader with truthful and biting portrayals of the media, and an indictment of the vicissitudes of the false model of suburban motherhood that so many parents across the world feel in their hearts and minds as they try to raise children in this world. Sadly, though, the book veers far, far to the left of center as it charges, tries, and convicts Republicans, conservatives, corporations, the capitalist system and by insinuation the entire country for not subscribing to the pan-European nanny state. Occasionally the book draws an odd picture of the Carter and Clinton Administrations as four and eight year oases of parenting utopia, seeming to associate those presidents with all things good and right with the world as it relates to the empowerment of mothers.
I don't harbor anger towards this book's thinly veiled liberal political treatises; I'm simply disappointed that its primary thrust is to read like an campaign instruction model for a John Kerry idiot savant.
Rating:
Summary: EYE-OPENING! BEST BOOK I'VE READ IN YEARS
Review: This book should be given out at every hospital/birthing center/etc - to any new or experienced American mother. It is a combination of hysterically funny insight, and critical sociological observation, history and commentary. It clearly and resoundingly demonstrates how the media has made modern mothers question and criticize ourselves to the very core. We must learn to fight back the insidious messages our media feeds us, both as women as well as American citizens. For a double-whammy, see Fahrenheit 911 - an excellent tie-in on another level about media dominance.
--- Lisa Johnson, Author/Editor of RITE OF PASSAGE: TALES OF BACKPACKING 'ROUND EUROPE (Lonely Planet, 2003)
Rating:
Summary: Must Read for Any Woman Considering Motherhood in the US
Review: This book uses content analysis to dissect the American culture of motherhood and how motherhood has changed over the last thirty years. It discusses the expectations and requirements our culture places on what it takes to be a "good mom". It also analyzes how we promote motherhood and exhalt motherhood in word but not deed, (i.e. we have beautiful Hallmark cards for motherhood, but no real support system in public policy). It is well written, although some of the chapters are a little redundant.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Analysis of New Mommism
Review: This is a much-needed and valuable book on the myth of the perfect, ever-so angelic mother that seems to permeate American society day-in, day-out. I am a child-free woman by choice and it astounds me that women still have babies in this country given the extremely hostile political, social and cultural atmosphere they must inhabit. This book has only confirmed my conviction that women in general and mothers specifically are a truly disadvantaged, oppressed, subordinated group of people. I will go so far as to say women are a colonized bunch, both mentally and physically. Mothers and mothers-to-be in the United States: pick up the book and smell the exploitation/oppression that you are swimming in.
Rating: 
Summary: hilariously funny, if only it weren't so sad
Review: This is a terrific book! I thought I'd just skim through it like so many of these kinds of books, but I find myself not wanting to miss a word. Every few pages I grab my husband and read a few lines aloud to him. I can SO relate to so much of what these ladies wrote, even though I definitely don't always agree with them... and isn't that the point? There are as many ways to be a fulfilled woman as there are human beings with two X chromosomes. I love the way most of this book is written and I think it's hilariously funny except that it's not, iykwim. It's a very pithy history of feminism and 'good mother'hood -- what they are, what they're not, what they could be, and what various folks would like you to think they should be -- from the perspective of 'real' women (ie not 'experts') with real opinions which they are unafraid of expressing. For the most part, I highly recommend this book. As women of all ages, we should know about and understand the context in which we are living our lives. *** (Caveat: Parts of the last chapter can be skipped entirely. I think that's where the authors themselves got a wee bit sidetracked and possibly even a mite self-righteous. It is apparently inconceivable to them that some women might make choices different from theirs for reasons that don't fit so well into the binary paradigm the authors have attempted to describe. Rather than taking sides in the "Mommy Wars" perhaps they might have returned to their original proposition that many women are ambivalent about their life choices; in truth, there are trade offs no matter what you do, and life choices span a range of A to Z, not merely A or B. It's a shame, because I really LOVED the rest of this book. It's still very much worth reading, and offers PLENTY of food for thought.) ***
Rating:
Summary: Waving my white flag in the so-called "Mommy war"
Review: This is a terrific book, both droll and pithy. You don't have to agree with every point the authors make, but they do make a convincing argument that the unrealistic standards set by the "Mommy wars" pit mother against mother, instead of allowing us to unite and find common ground.
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