Must Reads For All Mothers...

As a young mother and recently graduated nurse I felt that mothering was right up my alley. Snuggle, nurtured, bathe, babble, reprimand, educate, snuggle, hug, read, play, snuggle, nap, color, teach, cuddle, it was all in the texts I had read. What I failed to read or chose not to grasp when I read these books about mothering was the anger, sadness, frustration, self-pity, and used feelings that "mothering" can manifest. Then I "met" Erma Bombeck in her books. As the saying goes, "Laugh, I thought I'd die!" I needed to be told that a mother needs, AT THE TOP OF HER LIST OF SKILLS, is a Sense of Humor. Erma Bombeck offered me that! It was a lesson that has given me strength on many occasions and helped me to realize that life it too short not to laugh at every opportunity!


DID YOU KNOW...

When Erma Bombeck graduated from high school in 1944, she was determined to go to college and become a successful writer. She enrolled at Ohio University, but her future as a writer seemed bleak. Articles for the college newspaper were rejected, and she struggled to pass freshman composition. Discouraged, she enrolled at the University of Dayton.

Brother Tom Price, faculty advisor for the university magazine, invited here to do some humor pieces. Erma gave it a try and one day Brother Tom turned to her and said three key words which changed her live: "You can write."

Upon her 1940 graduation. Erma got a job at the Dayton Journal-Herald where she launched the career that would make her famous. Her column, based on her experience as a wife and mother, eventually spread to 900 newspapers.

While at the University of Dayton, Erma converted to Catholicism.

The Little White Book

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In her humor she taught me a lot about mothering. And LAUGHING is so good for one's health. I learned not to take myself so seriously! Please. If you don't do another thing, go to your local library and get one of her books. Look for: If Life Is a Bowl of Cherries, What Am I Doing in the Pits?; Family--The Ties That Bind and Gag; The Grass Is Always Greener over the Septic Tank. These books were passed around from mother to mother and when I got my copy back it was warn and tattered, but all of us mothers greeted each other with smiles and could say, "I've been there." And then laugh heartily!

~~^j^~~

Thank you, Erma Bombeck
and especially
Thanks be to God!