My Mother Wears Combat Boots: A Parenting Guide for the Rest of Us (Paperback)

~ Jessica Mills (Author) "Egg, meet sperm..." (more)
Key Phrases: purple flowered shirt, paid facilitator, organizing childcare, United States, Discipline Notes, Emma Joy (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A parenting guide like no other! Jessica Mills, a touring punk musician, artist, and political activist, gives readers a delightful, information-packed guide to having and raising kids without giving up your politics, art, or life.

Disappointed by run-of-the-mill parenting books that didn't speak to her experience, Jessica set out to write a book tackling the issues faced by a new generation of moms and dads. The result is a parenting guide like no other. Written with humor, extensive research, and much trial and error, My Mother Wears Combat Boots delivers sound advice for parents of all stripes. Amid stories of bringing kids (and grandparents) to women's rights demonstrations, taking baby on tour with her band, and organizing cooperative childcare, Jessica gives detailed nuts-and-bolts information about weaning, cloth vs. disposable diapers, the psychological effects of co-sleeping, and even how to get free infant gear. This book provides a clever, hip, and entertaining mix of advice, anecdotes, political analysis, and factual sidebars that will help parents as they navigate the first years of their child's life.

"Jessica Mills is a great writer with a lot to say and the heart, guts, brains, and perseverance it takes to do it. My Mother Wears Combat Boots is an instant classic, the latest in the evolution of punk sensibilities into sustainable community action: full of real life experience and well-researched inquiry. It will take another generation before a parenting book has the cutting edge insight, yet stable strength, of this collection."
—China Martens, author of The Future Generation: A Zine-Book for Subculture Parents, Kids, Friends & Others

"This is the most sympathetic read I've come across in my travels as a punk parent and musician. It's nice to know that there is someone else in the world that understands 'The Life' and is not afraid to put her insights in print. Thank you, Jessica."
—Ara Babajian, (drummer for The Slackers)

"My Mother Wears Combat Boots helps to pave the way for a whole new generation of moms with advice on the down to earth essentials of parenting, it's also further proof that you don't have to stop Rockin' once you have become a parent. I found this to be an invaluable resource as a new mom!"
—Chris(tine) Boarts Larson, editor of Slug & Lettuce


"Sometimes hilarious and sometimes heartwarming, Jessica Mills is brilliant in her own down-to-earth way. My Mother Wears Combat Boots avoids the pitfalls of the polemical and preachy and serves as an entertaining guide to how to raise a child into more than another blind consumer."
—Sean Carswell, Razorcake magazine


"How unreal and yet real it is to have a mother of two bring along a babysitter on tour in a wonderful refusal to be 'tied down' by motherhood-and now have the experience written up in intelligent and captivating prose, alongside a wealth of 'how-to' info and inspiring stories that relate touring to family life and in the process redefine both. Excellent!"
—Dick Lucas, Subhumans / Citizen Fish

About the Author

Jessica Mills writes a punk-parenting column for Maximum Rock N Roll, plays saxophone for Citizen Fish, was Director of a birth center in Hollywood, Florida, makes jewelry in her metalworking studio, is mom to seven-year-old Emma-Joy and one-year-old Maya-Rae, and organizes childcare cooperatives. She lives with her partner and daughters in Seattle, WA.

Product Details

• Paperback: 260 pages
• Publisher: AK Press (December 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1904859720
• ISBN-13: 978-1904859727
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #84,715 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Not just for active punx, December 4, 2007

By	Jacco (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

While I enjoyed the show and touring stories, they're not mine. I didn't feel at all like an outsider to this narrative (unlike how I've felt around the punk scene, but that's another story). This is a great book for parents who want to challenge a lot of dominant ideas about childraising--TV as babysitter, pink and blue as immutable signifiers of genitalia, the need for tons of "baby gear"--and want concrete stories.

What I particularly valued about her book is that she doesn't only trot out the success stories. One example is her long chapter on the problems of hospital births and how she found the setting for the natural, midwife-assisted birth she wanted--only to end up in the hospital for reasons beyond her control. This allows me, as a reader, to imagine both my ideals for birth & childraising, and see how things can work out under non-optimal conditions.

Plus, she's just a super storyteller. I really could hardly put it down to even make dinner.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars finally!, November 26, 2007

By	Laura Shaffer (pittsburgh, pa usa) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

there are few enough books on alternative parenting, but this is my favorite so far for a couple of important reasons. for one thing, it contains real practical how-to information to the extent that if this was the only book you read on parenting you would probably be ok. even more importantly, it makes parenting sound doable. most of the alternative parenting books i've read seem to focus a lot on how hard parenting is, how much personal and artistic sacrifice is required and how to stay slightly sane in the process. while this book acknowledges those possibilities, it focuses much more on how to have a blast and do your best with parenting and the rest of your life post baby. those are the major things i liked, and then there were the little things, like the only mention i've seen anywhere of biking while heavily pregnant (yes, it is possible).

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who want to raise interesting kids., December 29, 2007

By	Papa was a rodeo, "Mama a rocknroll band." (East Coast traverse) - See all my reviews

Through this book, J. Mills emerges as a resource long absent from the hip parent scene: she's done the grunt work of wading through conventional parenting guides, disentangling the rubies from the rubbish, and brings authentic, useful experience in an eloquently written companion to the adventures of procreation. Her well-researched and colorful breakdown of effective parenting and of maneuvering both the expected and the unexpected complexities within is essential pre-, during, or post-birth reading. Mills affirms that assuming the title of 'parent' does not mean losing one's personality. In fact, it'll help ensure that your child has one.