There Are Mums Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed a Fantastic Parent

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And honestly? This should be required reading for every mom. There Are Moms Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed A Fantastic Parent hilariously explores the worst moms in the animal kingdom and unless you’re yeeting your youngster to save yourself, it’s not you! Image Credit: FB/WildGreenMemesForEcologicalFiends But take heart, even on the days when you fear you’re screwing up your kids and condemning them to a lifetime of therapy, you’re still not the worst mom in the world (no matter what your tween is telling you). Glenn Boozan: I don’t think that laughter is like the cure for everything, but I do think it’s a really good starting place to sort of breakthrough or start to break through some of the shame and self-judgment that I think a lot of parents, especially moms, who I think just by default, society puts a lot of the onus and work and responsibility on them to raise future humans.

In high school and then college and beyond, I was really into writing just in general, and I didn’t really know what kind of writing I wanted to do. And then I just pursued different sort of performance outlets or writing outlets. I took a bunch of improv classes, and I joined a comedy sketch team at my college. So, I sort of just experimented here and there until I finally realized what kind of comedy writing and what kind of stuff I wanted to do. Glenn Boozan: Oh, okay. So, imagine the most stereotypical nerd with bad posture sitting in front of a computer for long periods of time, just hating everything they’re writing. That’s exactly it. Whatever you’re picturing, that’s what my day-to-day looks like. As for thinking your baby is so damn cute, you just want to gobble him up? Take solace in knowing that you won’t ACTUALLY eat him. (I fear I will never look at hamsters the same way again.) Glenn Boozan: Oh, boy. Well, it sounds like a copout, but I really do want everyone to know—the moms listening—that there are moms way worse than you. I know it’s the title of the book, but I wanted the title to sort of be the message as well. And I promise you, I promise you, promise you, promise you, like my mom, sometimes we’ll talk about mistakes she made raising me and I’ll be like, I don’t remember that. I promise you; that your kids are going to love you because you’re trying your best. And it’s all right to give yourself some grace when you’re feeling bad about yourself or whatever or however you are as a parent.Bianca Schulze: All right. So well, since you brought up the illustrations, do you have a favorite illustration in the book?

Here is a book that arrived at my library this week. I knew Quokkas had to have a dark side, but this is a bit worse than I suspected.” Nobody benefits from me being mean to myself. My work doesn’t get done faster or doesn’t get done better. The people around me don’t like me more and it doesn’t serve anyone. And so, I think that just that little thought sometimes helps me realize, like, oh, okay, I can calm down. Like, the stakes of this are not as high as I think. If I make a mistake, that’s fine. No one’s going to die, you know? No one’s going to explode unless you’re a quokka, baby. Bianca Schulze: Yeah, totally. Well, since we’re talking about the Australian animals, I loved that you included the quokka because—Glenn Boozan’s hopes for There Are Moms Way Worse Than You: Irrefutable Proof That You Are Indeed a Fantastic Parent.

A picture book for adults. And in the Dewey Decimal system, it’s a science book, specifically animal habits and behaviors. I’m not sure what I expected 🤷‍♀️😁 It’s small, like 8x6 and very much like a picture book, just NOT for children. But so, I’m going to try my best here at a little joke pulled from your book. But I wanted to say that it is no wonder that your book is selling as fast as a quokka tosses its baby when it’s face to face with a dingo. It’s so fun. There’s an appendix where the animal behaviors used in the the text are explained a bit more fully.And so, I wasn’t even planning on making it a book. I originally just wrote a rhyming poem as a Mother’s Day card for my sister. And then I was looking around to get somebody to illustrate it and just do a couple of drawings for it. And then my manager and his wife read it and they were like, oh, wait, we as parents, this resonates, this should be more—this should be a book. And so that’s the story of how the book was born.

Before we get into the why or the what or the who inspired you to write this book, I want to talk a little about the fact that you are a comedy writer. Will you tell us how somebody becomes a comedy writer and what that looks like on a day-to-day basis? Bianca Schulze: I love it. Well, thank you so, so much. And keep making us laugh. And keep making us smile. Thank you. Glenn Boozan: So when I was growing up, I loved, loved books. I read all the time. I was a big Nancy Drew gal. I’d read like 100 of them in a weekend or whatever. And then I think when English classes started requiring these, like, long essays that we’re analyzing the text—I started sort of feeling like reading for a long time, especially just throughout middle school, through college, whenever you have English class—sort of feeling a little bit like an assignment rather than something I was encouraged to love. Glenn Boozan: Yeah, so I did a lot of research on different animals, and I just sort of looked up different types of moms in the animal kingdom. And there are a lot of good moms in the animal kingdom, like lion moms are very good. I think dog moms tend to be pretty okay. But then there are a lot of really bad ones. And so, I wanted to find more examples than just like, oh, a hamster, mommy eats her baby—because I think a lot of people have heard that one. And I was like, oh, no, I really want to get into the nitty-gritty, like, what are some really bad animal moms? So yeah, I did a lot of research on that.Bianca Schulze: Hi. Glenn. Welcome to the Growing Reader’s Podcast. Thanks so much for joining me today. Here’s a question that I ask everyone, and I’m fascinated to hear your take on it as a comedy writer and not specifically as a children’s book writer. So, I always ask, to be a writer, they say you need to be a reader first. So, was there a pivotal moment when you considered yourself a reader? Review, 12/4/22: I bought this for my sister for Christmas, and is it really a gift if you don't read it first yourself? My grandmother bought me all the Harry Potter books over my teenage years, and read each of them before she gave them to me. That's true love. (At least, of books.) An encouraging book for any parent who is questioning their ability to successfully raise a child. Consider the quokka: Bianca Schulze: And then Laurie Kilmartin, the author of—and sorry, if you happen to be listening to this episode, any listeners in the car, I am about to say a bad word, so cover your kid’s ears. The author of Sh*tty Mom says, “I love this book! It sounds like a song whenread out loud,and it’s so funny and sweet thatI almost want to have another baby. Almost.”