If you are the mother of young children and have not read Kristin van Ogtrop‘s book, Just Let Me Lie Down: Necessary Terms for the Half-Insane Working Mom, go immediately to the bookstore, to the Kindle, wherever, and read it.
This book is amazing. I laughed. I thought “Amen, sister,” and I rejoiced in the comfort that “it’s not just me” while reading it.
The book is named after van Ogtrop’s mother’s favorite phrase, “Just Let Me Lie Down a Minute.” van Ogtrop, managing editor of Real Simple magazine, admits that she was annoyed by the request and didn’t fully understand it until she became a parent herself and began attempting to balance life as a mom and magazine writer/editor.
The book, which is organized like a dictionary of common Momisms, is so well written and cleverly crafted that I couldn’t put it down.
In the end, I was half satisfied that even the editor of a major magazine focused on simplicity can’t balance this working mom thing and half envious of how little van Ogtrop actually seems to care.
Adventures in Chaos is the name of van Ogtrop’s blog. It seems that she truly has them, and she embraces them wholeheartedly.

