Slummy Mummy-Fiona Neill

Slummy Mummy
Fiona Neill
Riverhead, Jul 2007, $24.95
ISBN: 9781594489440

After giving birth, Lucy Sweeney quits her job as a TV news producer to stay home to raise their child Sam. Her anally oriented “Husband on a Short Fuse” Tom supports her decision to be a stay at home mommy.

When Lucy made that decision nine years ago with the support of Tom, she did not have all the facts as the family oriented crowd glamorize raising a kid with a stay at home mummy make that mommy. She was unprepared for the chaos and the mess as no process she undertakes meets the mommy standard operating procedure metrics when it comes to her infant timing or when it comes to her infant eating and excrement tendencies. Once Sam was in school she thought she could regain part of her lost life, but his timing and his eating and excrement habits are still atrocious and she remains the centerfold for chaos theory. Now she also wonders about her two best friends; one is seeing a married man with four children while the other is balancing two hunks. Meanwhile as her spouse avoids domestic non-tranquility, she considers respites with the domesticated dad next door.

SLUMMY MUMMY is a funny anecdotal look at motherhood starring a beleaguered person who believes she is a prisoner of war. Lucy’s humorous observations will have readers agreeing with her. However, at times she flashes back to those first volunteer days of yore when she gave up being Lucy Sweeney to become a mummy mommy held hostage by a preadolescent; this can prove disjointing yet the audience will appreciate this zany look at Dads and Moms.

Harriet Klausner