Reviews

“Cheerfully admitting ‘I suck at this,’ Wilson details her mothering mishaps and neuroses… Wilson’s got a light comic touch, but she also traffics unflinchingly in the gross and in the sad (the scene in which her oldest child is rejected by eight out of nine nursery schools is heartrending).”
–Entertainment Weekly

” ‘When Did I Get Like This?’ by Amy Wilson is a funny, heartwarming account by a frazzled young mother of three. This book, in particular, will help [mothers] remember that the worst day with children is better than the best day without them.”

– Marguerite Kelly, The Washington Post

“Wilson…is funny enough to induce guffaws. Any parent will immediately commiserate with her woeful tales of mothering two boys (six and a half and almost five) and one girl (almost two). Take, for example, her travails of “ferberizing” her daughter, which parents know is the process through which kids become able to sleep independent of any help. These same parents know that it is a test of wills unlike any other… Moms are biologically wired to make that bawling stop by any means possible. Go pick her up? Well, yes. Crawl into the crib? Sure. Wilson eventually characterizes her wee daughter as “cruel and barbaric, callous and ruthless.” Though Wilson does all the right things with her heart in the right place, it all backfires. I know how hard it is to balance two glasses of apple juice so that each kid gets the exact same. But Wilson takes mothe rguilt up a notch when she tops the “Am I subconsciously favoring one child” musings by pondering, “Am I trying to make my children diabetic?”
–Library Journal

“Amy Wilson’s hilarious, tender memoir of all the ways her children drive her crazy – and she drives herself crazy – had me laughing out loud with recognition. She captures the small moments of motherhood in a way that is both funny and thought-provoking.”

-Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project

“Amy Wilson is the kind of mom with whom I’d like to have a cocktail, preferably a stiff one at the end of a long day of playground runs. Wise, feeling and gut-bustingly funny, When Did Get Like This? is What to Expect When You’re Expecting for moms you’d actually like as friends.”

-Amy Sohn, author of Prospect Park West

“Funny, smart and insightful, When Did I Get Like This? is ultimately about embracing the messy, complicated, and impossible-to-plan-for moments of motherhood and experiencing it for the adventure it really is. In this age when mothers are constantly bombarded with unrealistic expectations of perfection, Amy Wilson’s voice rings real and true.”

-Sara Ellington, author of The Must-Have Mom Manual and The Mommy Chronicles

“Reading Amy Wilson’s book is like meeting your favorite new mom friend: She’s whip-smart, charming, enviably capable but as self-doubting as the rest of us, and very, very funny.”

–Pamela Paul, author of Parenting, Inc.: How the Billion-Dollar Baby Business Has Changed the Way We Raise Our Children

“There’s that moment — and more likely, a lot of moments — when you look at yourself and your life and you think, “When, oh WHEN, did I get like this?”
And that’s when you need to pick up Amy Wilson’s book… and lock yourself in the bathroom and read it and try not to let the kids hear you laughing… Wilson nails it… I laughed so hard I cried.”

–Abbi Perets, she knows.com

“An honest, personal, and often hilarious collection of short, beautifully written chapters. As entertaining as it is reassuring.”

–Christie Mellor, author of The Three-Martini Playdate

“This was a marvelous mommy memoir. After slogging through so many whiny, self-indulgent tomes it was great to read something real. She manages to address the eternal fears of motherhood, the fact that no matter what we do we will NEVER get it right. I didn’t always agree with everything she might have chosen, but I respected her and found her to have a great, light attitude that made me be able to face my own current mothering job with a renewed sense of humor.”

–Amy at Front Street Books,  Alpine,Texas

I have always been a huge fan of both Erma Bombeck and Jean Kerr and this author deserves her name mentioned alongside theirs in the annals of good moms that do their best, recognize the absurdities of life and the have the writing chops to turn it all into a damned good book.
Amy Wilson taps into the worries, fears, hopes, dreams and conflicts of the modern mother—and she makes you laugh at the same time.

–Jenna, “Juggling Life” (jugglinglife.typepad.com)