Customer Reviews

The Hip Mama Survival Guide: Advice From the Trenches On: Pregnancy,Childbirth,Cool Names,Clueless Doctors,Potty Training,Toddler

5 star:		(19)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

After reading several pregnancy books that assumed I was living in the comfortable middle class with an eager & helpful dad-to-be and a desire to be the most Western mother on the planet, I found it really refreshing to read Ms Gore's survival guide. Her advice ranges from the Basic Layette (and I mean basic, for those of us on limited income) to How to Make a Quick $20 (garage sales, palm reading...). I knew, by the end of the book, that the author's trenches were not unlike my own.

Still, it left me hanging in a few areas--but that's where other books can help, as no pregnancy/childbirth book can cover it all. Her disclaimer in the introduction mentions just that: not wanting to duplicate what your everyday pregnancy book can cover, she addresses issues that the other books don't touch.

As part of a small pregnancy/childbirth library, this book is essential for single moms or those with alternative arrangements. On its own, it's great for support, and is somewhat practical. It made me want to subscribe to Ms Gore's Hip Mama magazine, just for the community of it.

I'm not a parent yet but working on it. Although my current situation is pretty mainstream (married and middle class) I have no intention of parenting traditionally. I really appreciated this book because I grew up in a non-traditional family, and it is nice to see other configurations of "family" acknowledged. Also the book was just plain fun!

If traditional pregnancy and parenting books make you feel inferior and inadequate, get this book! This book deals straight up with the reality of pregnancy and newfound motherhood for those of us who were not exactly waiting anxiously for the stick to have two lines. This book will assure you that you can do it and offers many wonderful and practical ideas for parenting solo, going back to school, and dealing with issues that no one ever talks about, like having a nervous breakdown, or how to keep the baby's dangerous father away.

I wish this book had been written 6 years ago when I was pregnant with my first, but I estatic that it's here for my second.

Ariel Gore founded a website to go with her book. I found the website when I was pregnant, and frightened. The " you can do it" and "You don't need a stroller" saved me.

I am Christian, conservative, Republican, married, and in my thirties. We lived, at the time, surrounded by single mothers with careers. Ironically, I was the most hippy amongst them. Ariel Gore, her reassurance, her sense of entitlement to things like- you know- food- and education- kept me alive in the midst of the most horrifying Post- partum depression. Being married to an employed man doesn't mean the cupboard isn't mighty thin at the middle of the month. Being committed to your child, no matter what, to your principles, no matter what, to your friends--that's what I learned from Ariel Gore.

I keep buying copies of this book, and keep giving them away, to mothers struck, and frightened, in the midst of fear, divorce, spousal death, unemployment...........

two thumbs, and two big toes, up.

twc

I'm sure this book's very useful for mamas living in dire financial conditions, but as for me, most of the advice the book has to offer was irrelevant. I hope I'll never get to a situation when returning an old used sweater to the store will seem like the only way to get some cash. (Not to mention the fact that where I live, you will never ever get money back for a returned item from a store. :) )
As for the style of writing, I found the book mildly entertaining at first, refreshing even - but then it just went on and on and I soon found myself bored.

Sadly, this was the 14th pregnancy book I bought and not the first... yet it was the one I was looking for all along. Entertaining and Informative... "Hip Mama" contains info that no other pregnancy book contains... such as "Can you breastfeed with pierced nipples" and "Are vibrators OK during pregnancy?" You may not be that alternative, but still the book is a good one...filled with good advice....and will help free you from the Bonds of "I Must Do Everything Perfectly (Including Have a Traditional Family Structure and a Gazillion Dollars) or Else My Baby Will Be A Freak" mentality. Five stars...absolutely.

After years of books telling us that the only way to have a baby is with a million dollars and a husband, Ariel Gore's book shows women that it's possible to be both hip and a mom.

Gore gives practical advice to women both approaching motherhood and those already knee deep. Her conversational style of writing makes the book easy and enjoyable reading... something that can't be said for most motherhood manuals.

With chapters covering health, childbirth, coparenting and the like Gore gives practical advice for hip women everywhere, taking the fear out of childbearing.

With so much pressure today telling us that we can't be young moms and hip femminists at the same time, I found Gore's book empowering for our generation, and those to come.

I found this book to be so reassuring that it was all going to be ok. That I was going to be able to be a mom and not sacrifice my sense of identity. That being an SUV-driving Soccer Mom was not the inevitable result of my pregnancy. It is a good reminder that "you are enough" and that being an edgy, alternative, opinionated socially progressive mom is a great thing.

I have frequently felt like there's a "Mommy Club" and I don't belong. Even though I'm married to an engineer (who's even the father of both the children!), I just am not a "Mommy." This book is so reasurring and empowering for any woman who is a mom but doesn't base her life on meatloaf recipes and the soap opera schedule. The book is admittedly a little out there--I'm not into tattoos or body piercing--but if you can get past that, it's really a wonderful celebration of moms who aren't "mommies."

This book saved my sense of humor, perhaps even my mind, while I was pregnant and about to become a single mom by choice.

Other books will tell you about developmental stages, what's considered 'normal' or conversely, what's not -- but this book is the only one written directly to the person who exists, thinking and feeling, alongside the growing fetus and burgeoning identity of mom-to-be. For sensible, down-to-earth parenting advice I recommend pediatrician Penelope Leach, but for writing that speaks to your soul and can make you laugh out loud with wry recognition and/or joy, Ariel is the goddess.

My only disappointment is that Amazon sets a limit of five stars for us to bestow -- I'd happily give this book eleven: ***********!!