"Get this for your pregnant friends, or yourself" (People): a
hilariously candid account of one woman's quest to bring her post-baby
marriage back from the brink, with life-changing, real-world advice.
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Recommended by Nicole Cliffe in Slate
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Featured in People Picks
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A Red Tricycle Best Baby and Toddler Parenting Book of the Year
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One of Mother magazine's favorite parenting books of the Year
How Not To Hate Your Husband After Kids tackles the last taboo subject
of parenthood: the startling, white-hot fury that new (and not-so-new)
mothers often have for their mates. After Jancee Dunn had her baby, she
found that she was doing virtually all the household chores, even though
she and her husband worked equal hours. She asked herself: How did I
become the 'expert' at changing a diaper?
Many expectant parents spend weeks researching the best crib or safest
car seat, but spend little if any time thinking about the titanic impact
the baby will have on their marriage - and the way their marriage will
affect their child.
Enter Dunn, her well-meaning but blithely unhelpful husband, their
daughter, and her boisterous extended family, who show us the ways in
which outmoded family patterns and traditions thwart the overworked,
overloaded parents of today.
On the brink of marital Armageddon, Dunn plunges into the latest
relationship research, solicits the counsel of the country's most
renowned couples' and sex therapists, canvasses fellow parents, and even
consults an FBI hostage negotiator on how to effectively contain an
"explosive situation." Instead of having the same fights over and over,
Dunn and her husband must figure out a way to resolve their larger
issues and fix their family while there is still time. As they discover,
adding a demanding new person to your relationship means you have to
reevaluate -- and rebuild -- your marriage. In an exhilarating twist,
they work together to save the day, happily returning to the kind of
peaceful life they previously thought was the sole province of couples
without children.
Part memoir, part self-help book with actionable and achievable advice,
How Not To Hate Your Husband After Kids is an eye-opening look at how
the man who got you into this position in this first place is the ally
you didn't know you had.
