While I did find parts of the book humorous and relatable, I ended up skimming through large portions of the chapters. There was some interesting information offered up regarding the studies of how men and women process and interpret things differently, but it was a little too heavy on the "men suck" side for me.

This book is amazing and should be a "must read" for all mothers. Dunn's personal stories will touch aspects of all parents' lives. She provides quite a learning experience through the pages of this book. Highly recommended.

There isn't a woman out there who can't relate to this book. It was funny, insightful and just plain honest!! I plan to buy several copies to give as gifts at baby showers. Really good book!!! I was given an arc by Netgalley for an honest opinion

Practical and hilarious! Although we don't have children, this book has already made a big difference in how I communicate with my husband. This is a must-read for wives, parents, and anybody in a serious relationship. I appreciated the frank way that Jancee presented information while also keeping me laughing throughout the book.

I dove in and it was like reading about myself. I have definitely had moments where I did hate my husband but to be fair there were moments before kids. Anyway, she writes verbatim how arguments happen with her husband and they are probably familiar to every couple who has a kid. She is funny and has jam packed this book with all sorts of researched support for how people, mostly men and women, interact with each other. She brings up household duties and how they are delegated and the most helpful thing was when they drove from NY to Boston to meet with a re known therapist for a 5 hour session. The guy cost a ton but she shows how it was worth it. There were so many helpful tips in this book from how to negotiate, listen, focus on each other, how to declutter and about sex. I think any couple, not just ones with children but any couple would find this helpful, a seriously well written and researched self-help book that isn't full of platitudes and pointless exercises that you don't really do and funny stories that makes me want to be her best friend.

I finished this book and immediately started re-reading it from the beginning. As a first-time mom nursing around the clock, so much of this book resonated with me and helped me feel less alone during a desperate couple of months—also kept me from leaving my husband. I'll be buying many copies for my mom friends.

This book gave me so many "ah-ha" moments that after a hundred pages I started to feel like an idiot. Why did I assume that so many of these little "life after baby" marital frustrations had only ever happened to me? How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids made me feel like I was part of a larger group called 'mothers who try to do it all and feel secretly guilty that they can't and wonder how everybody else does it.' What a relief to know it wasn't just me.

Dunn weaves her personal stories in with interviews from experts in fields as diverse as couples' counseling to organizational gurus on a quest to save her sanity and her marriage from the hole that it had fallen into post-baby. She is largely successful and gives plenty of tips that readers can incorporate immediately into their lives.

Recommended for parents of all ages, How Not to Hate Your Husband After Kids contains wisdom for just about every troublesome situation that one may find themselves in after children. Let's hope the book can live up to its title.

I want to thank Jancee Dunn, Little Brown and Netgalley for giving me this book for my honest review!
Review By Stephanie
4.5 Stars
I totally requested this book for the name alone! I mean come on How Not To Hate Your Husband After Kids.
This book was great; it talks about the subject of parenthood that so many parents don’t admit to. Jancee’s story is so relatable to moms everywhere. She had a baby, she does all of the housework and she works! Now she is married and her and her husband work the same amount of hours but at 5pm her work doesn’t stop like his…..someone needs to make dinner, take care of the baby and run a spotless house.
It is amazing how much a mother’s life changes after having a baby. We spend our days finding the safest and best everything for our kids. Putting all of our focus on our children our marriages take the back burner…..if they even make the stove!
Jancee Dunn did amazing with this book. Parenting isn’t easy we focus all our attention on our children, which I would never change but parents need to find a well-balanced media. This part memoir and part self-help will help you meet that happy balance.

Dunn provides plenty of laughs alongside solid advice and research regarding parenting differences and struggles. Much of what is included is common advice from other parenting and happiness experts, but the reminders are necessary. This will make a great tongue-in-cheek baby shower gift that will be greatly appreciated after parenting realities have set in.

Marital Spate May Lead to Hate

Marital relationships after kids take a hit, a really big hit. In most cases no one even bothers to tell you it’s coming. Personally, I fantasized about killing my husband in his sleep after our first child was born so sleep deprived and hormonally unbalanced was I.

In Beyond Mars and Venus by John Gray showcases the sexes’ hormonal differences and how to maximize our best hormonal states in order to improve romantic relationships between the genders. Dunn adds to the conversation with How Not to Hate Your Husbands after Kids by throwing kids into the mix. I mention both books together because I read them simultaneously and it gave me a fortified perspective on what it takes to maintain solid marital relations across all pertinent categories. However, I did find research discrepancies between the two books For example, Gray makes the argument that housework is best completed primarily by the woman and that fairly splitting it causes men to end up too far on their feminine side which ultimately hurts the relationship while Dunn’s research seems to point to the best scenario being a more equitable split. Who’s right?

I’m afraid that there is a fair amount of trial and error to find what really works in our own unique relationships so take what you read with some healthy skepticism.

Drawing from a number of experts, not just in marital relations but also feminist ideals and organization (physically organized living spaces have a huge impact on marital health), Dunn cobbles together a happy home life narrative in which she willingly and at times not-so willingly makes herself and her spouse experimental guinea pigs. Through the expertise of others as well as the always useful and delightful-to-read anecdotal case studies of her family and peers, she pinpoints the marital pitfalls that become overwhelmingly intensified once kids or even a kid enter the picture. She then attempts to diffuse the ever present damage done by utilizing a number of tried and true tools and techniques that all need to be in regular rotation and practiced daily in order to make any kind of headway.

Dunn’s self-deprecating brand of humor lightens up the heaviness of this huge load called marriage and raising kids. She is a trouper, a good spot, and seems like an all-around fun kind of girl.

What it takes to build a healthy marriage cannot be overstated. It takes a Herculean effort and monumental consistency to maintain it. Read this book, laugh along at the relevancy in your own relationships, and hopefully use the information as it was intended them better. I need to take my own advice too.

BRB Rating: Read It