"Hell Is Other Parents: And Other Tales Of Maternal Combustion" by Deborah Copaken Kogan (**1/2)

September 25, 2009 11:18 a.m. EST

Voice Publishing

224 Pages

Deborah Copaken Kogan tells us what we've been thinking all along: it's not your children's friends that are the problem, it's their parents. A humorous yet poignant tale of her struggles as a big-city mother, who along with her husband, try to juggle raising three children in their small Manhattan apartment on a barely-there freelancing income all the while zooming from one playdate to the next on her Vespa with her kids in tow, tells us how it is, minus the milk and cookies.

And if that's not enough on her already piling plate of things to do, Kogan adds more to her maternal resume by being a stage mom, film extra, craft services provider, and when most needed, hands her newborn fresh from the hospital over to a movie set in need of an extra. Who better to tell us about a motherly tale of almost-triggered combustion than Kogan herself.

A collection of her most memorable essays, she shares her own playground bully spats with random "helicopter" parents, her children's best friend's parents and why they always find the need to involve the school administrators to handle their problems, and how sharing a hospital room with another new mother might not be the best idea, but can later be found rewarding. Kogan also details her own struggles, with one particular chapter reminding us (although such a reminder is currently not needed) why our health care system is the most expensive in the world, yet the most inadequate.

Raw with humor and honesty, Kogan does a wonderful job being candid about the good things about motherhood as well as the not-so-good. Energetic (although after going through everything that she has, where does she find the energy?) and realistic, this is not a how-to book that teaches parents tips on raising their children in big cities with all the disadvantages it sometimes brings, but instead a laugh-out-loud book that will pick you up when feeling close to your own parental-combustion moments as well.