Thesedays we are awed by the sheer number of books available to us, and it'sdifficult to choose something relevant to our needs. As parents, we arelimited in the time we can spend reading, and as frugal families wecannot afford to spend on books we may later find irrelevant. So eachWednesday, I aim to review a book on a range of subjects from parentingguides to home-making, fashion/beauty and cookbooks which are most relevant for fabulous, frugal mums!Yummy Mummy's Ultimate Family Survival Guide is a practical and wholly truthful guide to parenting, dosed with a wry sense of humour and a realistic viewpoint only a true mother could achieve!
The truth about motherhood
Unlike many other "yummy mums" who've jumped on the hugely successful bandwagon of writing in this field, Liz Frazer offers us the truth about motherhood and freely admits this is based on her own perspective. So rather than be faced with prescriptive methods of parenting, we are offered advice on a "this is what works for me" basis. Which for me was a pleasant surprise!
Strangely organized
The organization of the book is rather surreal: chapters are labelled as rooms of the house, such as the kitchen and master bedroom chapters. Then each chapter offers advice about the family associations of the room (relationship advice for the master bedroom, culinary tips for the kitchen, and so on).
It's quite fun to read the book in this way, and just in case you need to flick to a particular section for on-the-spot-advice, you can locate this easily enough in the contents section.
There are some true gems of humour in here, which are enough to brighten any gloomy mums day! Even such tricky subjects as infidelity and in-laws are handled with a jovial touch. One thing which I really appreciate about Liz's writing is that she understands the concept of "budgeting": unlike other celebrity mums and their name-dropping advice guides, Liz's advice is real and practical. She explains how to "make do and mend", prepare tasty meals even when the budget is running low, and even how to prepare for a children's party without breaking the bank.
To summarize...
This isn't the best presented advice guide I've ever read, and at over 400 pages it will probably take you a while to wade through it all. Though after reading through this a few times now, I can honestly say that most (if not all) aspects of motherhood and family life are covered here. This will certainly remain on the bookshelf above my desk, which houses the books I refer to often, and I would indeed recommend this to any mother first-time, third time or grandparent!
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