Mum's Like Us Book Review & Competition -

I was recently sent a copy of Mum’s Like Us by Laura Kemp which is a fabulously funny book about normal mum’s taking on those ‘mother superior’ times (yes we all know at least one) that we see on the school run.

Mum’s Like Us tells the story of Stella Smith who sets up a club called ‘Mums Like Us’. She is a normal mum with a normal family and normal friends who are also normal mums. They are sick of the Mother Superiors that they bump into at the school gates who think that they have to do the best by their families so she set up the club so all the mums can get together and have a good old whinge about their kids, their partners and being a mum! They also recognise the fact that it can be tough being a mum, being at the families beck and call and feeling that you have lost your own identify and are just Mum!

Any of the above ringing any bells yet with anyone? Getting a small sense of de ja vu yet? If you’re still not sure take a look at this video for a preview of what Mum’s Like Us is about:-

This book is rip roaringly funny and a startlingly accurate account as life as a mum. It had me in stitches as elements of it seemed as if Laura had been a fly on my wall some days and regurgitated bits of my life into Stella and the story. Whilst reading it in Costa Coffee last week I actually chortled and snorted into my flat white (most un ladylike) and I would highly recommend other mum’s to read this book.

Laura’s writing is absolute genius and I could quite easily imagine myself sitting and drinking tea and scoffing cake at one of the meetings. Which like any sort of event I try to host at home or involve other adults in means the kids are also involved and often running round like whirling dervishes in the next room and creating chaos.

I quite like the idea of a knackered mother’s support club – I think if I was to start one there would be a fair few signups as us mum’s quite frankly have days where we are lucky if we don’t meet ourselves coming backwards!

There is a serious message in the book, which is that you don’t actually have to be perfect to be a good mum. A message I think more of us should be aware of and be quite ok with the days when we royally mess it up being a mum. We’re so pushed into what makes the ‘ideal mum’ that it’s really easy to lose the identity of yourself and I know I am guilty of trying really hard to fit in and be accepted and then having the stark realisation that if people didn’t like me for me then quite frankly just sod them. The book shows that perhaps the grass isn’t always greener on the other side and that people aren’t always how they look or feel like you think they feel.

If you pick up this book you will laugh from cover to cover. Tears will run down your cheeks as you empathise and live your days through Stella. You will shout at multiple intervals through the book. ‘this is me, this is my life!’ Overall this is a fabulously funny read that I think every mother should have.

About the Author

Laura Kemp started writing to get out of doing a real job. A journalist for 15 years, she turned freelance after having a baby because she couldn’t get out of the house, washed and dressed until lunchtime at the earliest. A columnist and contributor, she regularly writes for national newspapers and magazines, and spends quite a lot of her time on Twitter. This is Laura’s first novel, which she hopes will strike a chord with exhausted mums who don’t iron either. Laura is married with a son and a neurotic cat.

Find out more about Laura at her website www.laura-kemp.com

Follow Laura on Twitter & Facebook

Join the knackered mother’s club on the official Mum’s Like Us Facebook page too.