Revelations in the Rearview Mirror: One Mother's Hard-Won and Hilarious Epiphanies on the Road to the Empty Nest written by Louise Parsley

 

Fans of Louise Parsley's columns and conversations count on her to pull the facade off family life and reveal how meaningful, and even marvelous, the truth can be—if you're willing to leaven it with a laugh. In this collection of essays she covers the career life of a mother. Looking over her shoulder in the rear-view mirror, she can tell you just what worked, and more about what didn't. Only as her last child prepares to leave the nest does Louise realize that she finally feels like a real Mother. But now that she has a handle on how to raise her children, she's worked herself out of a job. Reflecting on the stages of her journey, she knows now what she might not have been able to do then, even if she had known about it.

Louise knew she was in over her head the minute her O.B. handed her the baby: "Nothing about caring for a child came instinctively. Giving birth was not the "Aha!" moment my friends had described. Instead of being a flash of clarity as though a light bulb went off, mine was more like a power surge of electricity that produced, not Eureka!, but a migraine. With no primer on parent/ motherhood, no one to call in Manila for technical support, this poor, defenseless baby was left in my care. And I feared I was wired with the maternal warmth of Leona Helmsley."

What's a mother to do? With poignant humor, Louise takes us on her journey through the The Holding On Years, The Chauffeur Years, and The Letting Go Years, towards earning the big M of Motherhood. Any mother who has simultaneously wept and sent up a hallelujah of relief when her child graduated — from anything — will find a friend in Louise. These are essays to read and re-read when nostalgia for the crazy "wait-til-your-father-gets-home" years between playgroups and senior proms hits.

When LOUISE PARSLEY's three children were young, she realized that in order to preserve her sanity, she needed an outlet. She began writing about family life in community newspapers and magazines, and people responded to her warmth, humor, and powerful honesty by begging for more. Louise now speaks across the country in schools, women's groups, churches, prisons, organizations that serve the disabled and anywhere people need to laugh and cry about the crazy love that is family. She lives in Houston, Texas.