Amy Wilson, author of When Did I Get Like This?, on tour April/May 2011

About When Did I Get Like This?

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (April 19, 2011)

When Did I Get Like This? is the hilarious story of one mother’s struggle to shrug off the ridiculous standards of modern parenting, and remember how to enjoy her children

Over the last seven years of long days with little children, I have had many moments of joy, calm, and peaceful reverie.

This book is about the other moments.

Before I became a mother, failing at something did not shake my fundamental belief in my capabilities as a human being. But now that I am the mother of three children under the age of seven, I have one overriding daily thought: I suck at this.

What kind of mother feeds her kids dinosaur chicken nuggets? Three times a week? What kind of mother lets hand washing after using the toilet slide, as long as it was just Number One? And then I wonder: When did I get like this? Why do I doubt my parenting abilities, day after day? Why does motherhood, a job as old as Eve, have me teetering daily on the edge of sanity?

With each new stage of motherhood, I tell myself I will never again be suckered by the question, “Don’t you want what’s best for your children?” And yet, time after time, I am. Sometimes, I am right to obsess. Other times, the record will show, it has been distinctly counterproductive.

I’m working on it . . .

About Amy Wilson

Amy Wilson is the author and performer of the one-woman show Mother Load, which started off-Broadway, and has been touring the country ever since. She made her Broadway debut in the Tony-Award-winning play The Last Night of Ballyhoo, and has appeared in dozens of other plays in New York City. On television, she was a series regular on Norm and Daddio, and appeared on Felicity, Ed, Law and Order: Criminal Intent, Deadline, Boston Common, and All My Children. Her film credits include Kinsey, Kissing Jessica Stein, Keeping the Faith, and Ira and Abby.

Her writing appears regularly in Babytalk magazine, on parenting.com, and on CNN.com’s “Living” page. Her favorite productions are her three young children, whom she raises with her husband in New York City.

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