Mara Altman has been married to her husband Dave for two years, and it’s beginning to get unbearable. Friends, relatives and complete strangers are all paying an inordinate amount of attention to her body shape, and speculating whether it might change any time soon; in short, when will she get pregnant? Because that’s what you do, isn’t it? You find the love of your life, get married and make mini humans. Or is it? In a state of increasing panic, Altman wonders what it actually means to have a child. Is she ready to give up the dreams of travel and freedom that always felt so important to her? What does it feel like to be pregnant? What’s the truth about being a parent? How can she reconcile her friends’ assurances that parenthood is ‘the best thing ever’ with their red-rimmed, puffy eyes and sleep deprivation? How can she decide if this is the right thing for her or not? And how long does she have before the choice gets made for her?

For the full review, and comments on other books by Altman, please see my blog:
https://theidlewoman.net/2020/05/16/the-world-according-to-mara-altman/ ( )

When I decided to read this, I was expecting humor, belly laughs. Those were delivered, yes. But I would not classify it as primarily humor. The author truly did undertake a serious topic about whether we should have children. Most of us believe that answer is yes, of course, WITHOUT QUESTION. The author does not. And I do not as well. Many people who had children did so by mistake...not that it was an accident so much as they simply were not good candidates for parenthood. They failed and society suffered. There are no prerequisites for parenthood beyond the physical. Qualifying for a driver's license requires far more preparation than conception.
The author clearly struggles with the question as well as society's knee-jerk expectations. The pressure for married couples to reproduce is strong and ignoring or rejecting it, or even questioning it as the author does, look out!
I like children, but they don't automatically qualify for angel status. There are angels of course, and there are monsters as well. Many of the monsters are so because their parents are totally void of parental skills and their children reflect it in spades. And those same parents many times fail to learn by their mistakes as they often opt for pacification...surrendering to demands instead of demanding standards of behavior. Being a good parent is tough, and quitting that objective is easy for many
Perhaps this book should become mandatory reading for all couples before becoming engaged to marry. Wishful thinking I'm sure, but if it were possible, I would vote yes. Many couples should greatly expand their knowledge base before undertaking parent hood, to understand and PREPARE for children, so failure and disappointment may be avoided, or at least minimized. And many would discover they should not go there if they wish to have a decent shot at happiness.
But then, that's just my opinion ( )