Baby Blues Scrapbook #11: If I'm a Stay at Home Mom, Why Am I Always in the Car?

"Artist Kirkman and writer Scott obviously know about parenting. You can see it in every installment of the true-to-life strip they create." --Cartoon Opportunities

Darryl and Wanda MacPherson have come a long way since little Zoe was born. Back then, they agonized over Wanda's transition from career woman to stay-at-home mom. They struggled with the great breast-feeding-in-public debate. They learned that mommy spit was the universal solvent and determined those all-important child-safe cuss words. These days, they're more mature, more experienced. With Zoe now playing the big sister to baby Hammie--who's started to walk--the MacPhersons are calm parental units.

Don't be too sure! In If I'm a Stay-At-Home Mom..., Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott show us the reality of Darryl and Wanda's world. Consider what the MacPhersons found out: one four-year-old voice is louder than 200 adult voices in a crowded restaurant; a flushing toilet and the word "Oops!" (heard together) produce more anxiety than any sounds in nature; and bribery is not only not wrong, it's totally necessary.

Kirkman and Scott perfectly illustrate the never-ending mayhem that surrounds everything from toys to vegetable consumption and the boundless love for the creature who just smeared lipstick on her baby brother. Parents and nonparents flock to Baby Blues because it expresses the genuine challenges in parenting with sidesplitting humor. Since it was launched in 1990, this strip has become the definitive voice for those who have abandoned clean homes, extra money, and sanity in order to raise their lovable little ones.

Rick Kirkman of Phoenix, Ariz., and Jerry Scott of San Luis Obispo, Calif., launched Baby Blues in 1990 and have spent the years since getting the strip "just right." Jerry also writes the award-winning comic strip Zits and has received a Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year by the National Cartoonist Society.