Book Review: Sippy Cups are Not for Chardonnay

Sippy Cups are Not for Chardonnay

and Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom

By Stefanie Wilder-Taylor

From Goodreads:

Friends, family, colleagues, the UPS delivery guy -- suddenly everybody is a trove of advice, much of it contradictory and confusing. With dire warnings of what will happen if baby is fed on demand and even direr warnings of what will happen if he isn't, not to mention hordes of militant "lactivists," cosleeping advocates, and books on what to worry about next, modern parenthood can seem like a minefield.

In busy Mom-friendly short essays, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay delivers the empathetic straight dirt on parenting, tackling everything from Mommy & Me classes ("Your baby doesn't need to be making friends at three months old -- you do! But not with people you'll meet at Mommy & Me") to attachment parenting ("If you're holding your baby 24/7, that's not a baby, that's a tumor"). Stefanie Wilder-Taylor combines practical tips with sidesplitting humor and refreshing honesty, assuring women that they can be good mothers and responsibly make their own choices. A witty and welcome antidote to trendy parenting texts and scarifying case studies, Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay provides genuine support, encouragement, and indispensable common-sense advice.

My Thoughts:
I highly enjoyed this book. It was the perfect book to bring with me on the babymoon because it's chock full of some good information, yet Stefanie Wilder-Taylor does not take herself too seriously at all. After reading some "serious" baby books that were informative, yet intense...this was a breath of fresh air. Even though I'm fairly certain the author would hate me in real life (some of the "mom-types" she targets in her book I definitely fall into) it was helpful to put things into perspective for me, and to realize that with children you really have to go with the flow and let certain things roll of your back.

For example:

"Yes, there are women who report feeling madly in love with their babies the second they lay eyes on them. These women are either very lucky or lying or needy, and I don't trust them. They're the same women who keep a minute-by-minute pregnancy scrapbook (Teeheehee), bank cord blood, and name their babies after celebrities."

"Well, if you're the type who likes making all your baby food, you're probably also the type of person who's into making your own Christmas wreaths and thinks tofu is a meal."

Sometimes she was a tad too cynical for me, and other times I felt she was just making cheap jokes for laughs (though these jokes were much better than Jenny McCarthy's Belly Laughs book). She talks about getting drunk or relying on meds to get through the days with a baby a lot....and I just don't really find that humorous. I totally get that many women need to go on meds after having a baby, but that it should be handled more seriously and not as this funny, comedic right-of-passage.

Then other times, I loved the way she'd deliver her opinion in a way that was hard to argue with:

"The stroller, in fact, will be on of your bigger purchases. If you have $729 to throw around, you could buy yourself a bugaboo. .... Or, you could donate that money to help a poor family get their oldest child a few extra sessions on dialysis. But that's your call."

Stefanie goes through evvverything from making new mommy friends, to losing post-pregnancy weight, to traveling with your baby, to how to pick a current, up-to-date pediatrician: 

 "Just use your best judgment. If you spot a jar of leeches on the counter or the doctor's big on leprosy vaccines...he's not current."

I found myself chuckling through most of this book and rereading many of the passages to Chris on the beach. I'd highly recommend this book to my friends and to you!