The Other Mother: A wickedly honest parenting tale for every kind of family

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I can't begin to imagine how hard it must be to raise twins, regardless of any other hurdles or added complications that may come with anyone's personal situation, whether that be through IVF conception or prematurity or parental disagreements. Quite frankly, this book has given me a deeper appreciation for not only the parents that I work with but also of literally any parent that I see pushing a pram down the high street. Cutting Edge Of Comedy - competition review". Metro.co.uk. 12 August 2002. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012. I’ve never been good with small talk and I am completely allergic to other people’s opinions, so it’s no real surprise that I was not totally prepared for motherhood – and certainly not for being a mother to non-identical twin boys. As any parent of twins will tell you, when you walk down the street with a buggy so huge it looks like it could have been used in the last moon landing, people just want to talk to you. ‘Are these your twins?’; ‘I have twins!’; ‘My mum is a twin’; ‘I met a twin once’; ‘My favourite film is Twins!’ How are you supposed to respond? ‘That’s great to hear. OK, BYE NOW’?

Jennifer Helen Brister (born 9 February 1975) is a British stand-up comedian, writer and actor from London. [1] Life and career [ edit ] Early life [ edit ] Stand up comedian Jen Brister’s first novel focuses on her experience of entering motherhood with her partner, Chloe. Once Jen and Chloe have agreed that they would like to start a family, they begin making the hundreds of decisions every parent-to-be faces, with a few extras thrown in for being a gay couple. One of these decisions was that Chloe would undergo fertility treatment, and when their twins are conceived, Jen finds herself launched into the role of ‘the other mother’. Not the birth mother, not the biological mother, not the adoptive mother, but something other. Comedian Jen Brister writes about her personal experience of motherhood from the time she and her partner Chloe decide to have children, through the birth of their twin sons and those early sleepless nights, up to the boys reaching four years old. She shares the highs and lows of that time, the expectations of others and also her own misguided expectations, and how what she has learned in that time has shaped her current perspective.The comedian Jen Brister talks about what it was like becoming a non-biological mum. She had twin boys with her partner Chloe four years ago after several rounds of IVF, and it was Chloe who gave birth. She talks about the reaction of friends and professionals, and what she felt like herself having babies in this way - experiences she has written about in her book The Other Mother. Brister was born in Kingston upon Thames, Greater London, in 1975 to an English father and a Spanish mother. She has three brothers. [2] Brister was raised as a Catholic [3] and went to all girls' Ursuline High School, Wimbledon. [4] She then went on to Richmond College. [5] Her Spanish-born mother is a frequent target of her comedy shows. [6] Stand-up career [ edit ]

I first saw her on one of the 'Live from the Appollo' shows. I was about to go out to work on a night shift and I ended up crying laughing, and I can't remember the last time I did that!!! From that premise, Jen Brister gives a lot in this book - a lot of honesty, a lot of laughter (some of it fairly dark), a lot of appraisal both of herself and her girlfriend Chloe, the process of IVF, the whole tedious conversation about the family dynamic initiated by cishet folk on a monotonous and regular basis, about the myths, the truths, the bullshit woo-pressures of being a parent to two kids simultaneously, and about doing it a) slightly later on the human energy curve than might be ideal (she was 40 when the kids were born, and is strikingly honest about the energy-sapping reality of that), and b) while struggling to turn herself from a barely self-supporting circuit comic and responsibility-repellant into a savings-possessor, known name in comedy and responsibily-facer-upper.

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I have always hated the idea of becoming a parent. The identity of motherhood is sometimes bound up with stereotypes of chatty boringness, a loss of self-identity, and continuous complaints. Those perceptions were challenged after reading Jen Brister’s The Other Mother.

With the rebel alliance of MPs attempting to prevent a no deal Brexit before parliament is prorogued next week, who are the women to watch, what are they thinking and how will they act this week? We're joined by Helen Lewis, staff writer for The Atlantic and Katy Balls, deputy political editor of The Spectator to discuss. Chamberlain, Julia; Bennett, Steve (1 January 2006). "Jen Brister: Me, My Mum & I". chortle.co.uk . Retrieved 28 May 2019. Paskett, Zoe (5 December 2018). "Jen Brister interview: 'I was strangling my career, but I don't give a f*** anymore' ". Evening Standard . Retrieved 28 May 2019. It is important to point out before I start this review that I don't actually have kids but I do a) work with children and b) enjoy reading, so those are my main qualifications for this book review.

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Bottom line, it's a book which in no way sets out to make her especially likeable, but through which her likeability seeps anyway, almost against her will. It's a book of laughter, logic and love which gives the hearty finger to pretentiousness and guff - which frankly feels like just the right mood with which to scream towards 2020. Recommended, this one. If you're a parent, some of it will strike shivers of remembrance or cameraderie fown your spine. If you're not, you'll still enjoy it while feeling slightly smug. Latitude Festival 2006 [ permanent dead link] Brister also appeared at the Latitude Festival 2006 & 2018