This book of poetry was so honest and heartfelt. As a mother, the humour and sage advice really struck a chord. Highly recommend it, would make a wonderful gift as well.

Thank you to Harlequin for allowing me to review this beautiful book of poetry. Dear Mother by Bunmi Laditan is available April 4, 2019.

Bunmi Laditan is maybe better known for her Honest Toddler tweets. She has always been the most honest about the struggles and massive amounts of yourself that goes into motherhood. I love her honesty online, taking pictures of her pizza delivery after grocery shopping, the piles of laundry that live on her sofa, and the daily struggles of trying to live a life and feed a 3 year old.
If you are a mother, these poems show the real truth. The love she has for her kids balanced with the daily struggle to just keep your shit together is showcased in beautiful poetry.
Dear Mother is a must read for every parent who needs to feel seen and who is overwhelmed by the volume of worries and massive amounts of love these little people bring to our lives.

I expected, from reading books by this author before, for this to be funny and relatable. And don’t get me wrong, parts were. But it was heavier than what I was hoping for and lots just didn’t click for me. I would absolutely still recommend it if poetry is your thing, but it’s not always mine and so when I do branch out into it, it’s hit or miss.

The hot mess of motherhood appealed to me, and maybe if it had been all that it would’ve ended up rating higher for me because that it what’s so where I’m at right now.

A heartfelt and occasionally funny collection of original poems about motherhood, parenting, miscarriage, growing up, and relationships.

I took one star off for the poem praising MLMs, which I view as pyramid schemes that prey on vulnerable people, new moms especially:

"dear mother,
tell me about what you're selling
candles, lotion, oils
because I know a woman with her own money
is a woman with options"

Other than that eye-raising poem I quite enjoyed the collection.

Review to be posted in March on various sources mentioned on my profile.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange of an honest review.

So I tried this one yesterday, but believe me it was a terrible idea. My kindle just ate this one to pieces, destroying illustrations, poems didn't make sense as they were all tumbled together. But yeah, I was in bed, so I didn't have a chance to read it another way. Until today. I just downloaded it to my PC, and voila it was readable. However, I did find out that I don't like most poems even though they are now way more readable.

I was very eager about this book, I read her other book: Toddlers Are A**holes: It's Not Your Fault and also saw a few of her tweets in the Big Book of Parenting Tweets. Of course I couldn't resist this bundle of poems, parenting poems. Sadly, whereas I love her writing style, the poems often didn't work out for me. I am trying to write why, but I am just too worried I will get people angry. But here we go. They were too fancy, and with that I mean there were lots of big words used, or complex sentences (even with simpler words). I didn't feel a flow in a bunch of the poems, and I know that I even tuned out of some because it just didn't seem to go anywhere.

But there were others that worked for me, that I liked. Mostly they were the shorter ones.

The poems cover a wide variety of being a parent. From birth (and still-birth) to seeing them grow up, to enjoying the quiet at times, to partners and relationships. I really liked that there was so much variety added, not just about the children, but also about the mom, the dad, the family, about expectations.

I am still giving this one two stars. Because there were poems/short verses that I liked, plus the idea of parenting tweets is still unique and interesting. Also there were illustrations and I always like it when those are added.

"The audacity of a child's
demands for love
are only matched
by the ridiculous depths
of the love their parents
have for them."

Dear Mother wasn't exactly what I was expecting, in good ways and bad. Having followed the author on Facebook for the last couple of years, I'm used to her hilarious, crude, weird status updates, so I honestly expected this to be a funny collection of anecdotes about her kids and her reactions to their zaniness. Instead, I got a collection that was 10% humor, 90% utter seriousness.

"to make a two-year-old,
combine one puppy
one incontinent octopus
and a single juice box-loving gangster
mix until it starts slapping"

The humorous parts, short as they were, were pretty good, though not on par with her everyday updates — to be fair, I guess it's not easy to write side-splitting poetry! That said, there were a few gems that made me smile (or laugh out loud, like the quote above).

"dear mother,

no
they would not
be better off
without
you"

While I was mostly disappointed to see how serious it was, there were a few poems (like this one) that really hit me in the gut and made me sit still and soak it in for a minute, and I appreciated those moments tremendously. I always heard people say parenthood was the hardest job you could have, and I thought it was an exaggeration until I started living it. The guilt and feelings of self-inadequacy I live with every single day? Those are hard to breathe through. Bunmi gets it, though, and she offers some incredible reassurances that ended up being exactly what I needed to hear today.

All in all, it's not my favorite book I've read on life as a parent, and it's nothing ground-breaking, but it's got a lot of enjoyable poems and I think most mothers, or parents in general, will find it easy to relate to.

All quotes come from an advance copy and may not match the final release. Thank you so much to the publisher for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Bunmi Laditan, well-known for her other writing and media presence, has crafted a short but heartfelt examination of what it is like to be a mom. Sometimes heartbreaking, many times infuriating, at all-times exhausting, so many of the poems rang true to me as a mother myself. I think that any artistic work that delves deeper into what it is like being a parent, without the Instragram filter on it, is extremely valuable. It will make a great Mother's Day gift!