Synopses & Reviews
The only thing funnier than watching your husband build a play set out of household appliances or returning the video to the library and the library book to the video store is realizing that you've done all these things yourself. Laughter truly is the best medicine!
About the Author
Debbie Farmer was born in San Francisco, California. . . . She spent most of her life living in the Bay Area and graduated from Tennyson High School in Hayward in 1984. . . . She earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Creative Writing from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Shortly after graduating, she decided to . . . go back to college . . . . In 1990 she received a California teaching credential and has . . . taught elementary school for over 13 years.
Debbie launched her syndicated column Family Daze in 1996, after finding out that other people with children also got kicked out of nice restaurants. . . .
From once-a-month publications in the local Mother's Club newsletter, her columns moved to appearing bimonthly in the Oakley Gazette. Then . . . they moved to appearing weekly in the Contra Costa Times, a paper with a much larger circulation.
After self-syndicating Family Daze for a few years, Oasis Newsfeatures Syndicate picked up the column and it now reaches over 400,000 readers in over 40 newspapers.
In 1999 Family Daze won Honorable Mention in the National Society of Newspaper Columnists annual contest. . . . In 2002, Debbie's column was instrumental in helping Pittsburgh Parent Magazine win a Gold metal in humor writing from the Parenting Publications of America.
Her publishing credits include: Reader's Digest, Family Fun Magazine, The Washington Post, The Christian Science Monitor, Christian Parenting Today, Sunset Publications, Chicken Soup For The Mother's Soul II, Chicken Soup For The Gardener's Soul, Chocolate For A Woman's Courage, Life's A Stitch (with authors such as Erma Bombeck and Gloria Steinam) and in hundreds of parenting magazines in the U.S., Canada, and Australia.
Table of Contents
vii Surviving the Chaos of Parenting
Life's Little Mysteries
15 A Good Sport
17 Fashionably Early
19 Shopping Cartless
21 Eternal Youth
23 Through the Eyes of a Child
25 Birthdaze
27 New and Natural Barbie
29 Kid Myths
31 Selling the Family Car
33 The Vortex of Lost Stuff
You Can't Fight Mother Nature
37 Of Mice and (Wo)men
40 A Cat's Best Friend
42 A Fly on the Wall
44 Getting a Little Crabby
46 All in the Name of Science
48 A Black Thumb
50 Go Take a Hike
52 Spider Season
An Advocate for the Domestically Challenged
57 House Rebellion
59 In the Bag
61 Household Tips
63 The Futile Gourmet
65 Feng Shui: East Meets Nest
67 Sew What?
69 Pot Luck
71 Spring Over-Organization Syndrome
73 Kitchen Remodeling
75 Just for the Record
Holidays are the Most Wonderful Time of the Year (and other fantasies)
81 A Mother's Letter to Santa
83 My Halloween Angel
85 Making the Cut
87 Thanksgiving Leftovers
89 What a Mother Is Thankful For
91 A Mother's Valentine
94 Mother's Bill of Rights
96 Easter Basket Case
98 Mother's New Year Resolutions
100 Really, You Shouldn't Have
102 Halloween: The Kick Off of the Holiday Candy Season
104 Thanksgiving Traditions
106 Christmas Cards
108 The Annual Picking of the Tree
110 The Mystery of Easter Grass
Summertime and the Livin' Ain't So Easy
115 Unsuitable
117 A Housewife's Mid Summer Prayer
119 The Tankini
121 Labor Day
123 The Theme Park Vacation
125 Lost Summer Stuff
School Days, School Days, Dear Old Golden Rule Days
129 Mom's First Day of School
131 Off Color
133 Sharing Day
135 Share and Share Alike
137 Major Project
139 Friendship Fruit Salad
141 Book Fair
143 Fuzzy Bear's Great Adventure
146 Fifth Grade Parent Volunteer
148 A Kindergartner's Rules for Life
There's No One Quite Like Dear Ol' Dad
153 A Father's View
155 Handy Dad
157 Father's Day Isn't Just for Anybody
159 Remotely Controlled
162 Ode to Dad
164 A Real Swinger
166 Father-Child Events
168 Husband Speak
Much More Than I Need to Know
173 Out of Touch
175 Making It Up
177 All in the Cards
179 Speed Reading
181 The Other Woman
Mark My Words (and the furniture and the walls . . .)
187 Mom Advice
189 Self Talk
191 The Third Time's a Charm
193 The Best Laid Plans
196 How Embarrassing!
199 Parent Speak
201 My Daughter, My Self
203 A Long-Standing Date
A Few for the Road
207 Crazy Preschool Quirks
209 Developing Pictures
211 One Thing Leads to Another
214 Pink and Blue Make . . . Green?
216 Noticing Notices
218 Garage Junk
220 Renegade Mom
222 My Eight-Year-Old Teenager
226 All You Remember