This week I looked at two and a half more books that I will share with you:
1) Knock Yourself Up: No Man? No Problem!, by Louise Sloan.
ISBN: 1583332863
I'm liking the tone of this book better than the first couple I read. It's very DIY (ha!), with a touch of humour. She doesn't take herself too seriously, and also uses a lot of anecdotal stories to tie things together. It also mentioned a group in Vancouver that meets up regularly since it's gotten too big for the usual forum mediums, but didn't have any specifics(gah!). I absolutely loved some of the "slang" ways of explaining SMCing to others/responding to the "Who's the father?" question. One was "I did a Murphy Brown", teehee. Also loved this quote from an SMC named Polly:
" I get irritated when I hear people saying, "You can't do this unless you make fifty five thousand dollars a year." Yes. Yes you can, I want women to know this. I'm doing it. It will be harder, and you will have to be more resourceful, but it can be done, because I"M DOING IT." - Polly
There were some great ideas about saving money in here too; some included befriending other lower income moms and trading home made baby food for variety; hiring $6/hour teens to babysit weekends instead of a $16/hour nanny; Rotating playgroup, where each mom "hosts" a mini daycare for a day a week and gets free care the other four days at other's houses/central locale; nanny share,or being a nanny with the condition that you get to bring your own child along with; and quite a few other ideas. Still working my way though, but I'm buying this book.
2) PDF Addenum to Mikki Morrissette's Choice Mom's book from last time: Loved this. Had a actual (though roundabout) link to a Vancouver based meetup group (in person) for women who are thinking about SMCing, or who have SMC'd; also a yahoo discussion group for Vancouver specific tips/tricks/networking. Awesome. Here is the openly available PDF link, if anyone is interested.
3)Single Mothers By Choice, by Jane Mathies.
ISBN: 0812922468
This is the first book in the genre, so to speak. Jane was a trailblazer back in the eighties, and this was the original book she wrote about it. Because of that, it has a lot of what is considered, "basic" information now about methods, feelingsbombz, and a few stories about how the author experienced the journey. It is populated much less by quotes from actual SMCs, as when it was written there simply weren't many SMCs. The SMCs shared about are almost all universally well off white women, and not reflective of the entire population of SMCs these days. I believe there was a re-written version of this book more recently than the copy I'm reading. Lots of self talk about "You can DO this", since at the time it was a much scarier proposition than it is now. A pioneering book, but not much that strikes chords or sings to me. Out of date.
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