How Not to Calm a Child on a Plane

As Nia Vardalos (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) points out, “These stories will make milk shoot from one of your nostrils and a martini from the other. Johanna Stein brings to mind the unflinching honesty and compassion of Nora Ephron.”

Looking for the perfect book to help you survive childbirth and parenting with your sanity intact? Look elsewhere. For Johanna Stein, parenting is an extreme sport. Her stories from the trenches may not always be shared experiences—have you ever turned a used airplane barf-bag into a puppet to calm your wailing baby?—but they will always make you laugh. Columnist Lisa Belkin advises: “It is dangerous to read [Johanna] any place where it is inappropriate to laugh uncontrollably. It is also dangerous to read her if your bladder control is not what it once was. But once you soldier through and do read her you have made a friend—one who ‘gets it’ and makes ‘it’ easier to do because she’s on your team.”

So, no, this book won’t teach you how to deal with nipple blisters or oedipal complexes. But if you want to learn why you should never attempt to play a practical joke in the delivery room, then you’re in the right place.