Book Review: Confessions of a Domestic Failure

Mom Monday Book Review: Confessions of a Domestic Failure by Bunmi Laditan

Moms of little ones – you need to read Bumni Laditan’s Confessions of a Domestic Failure right away! Many of you are already fans of her truthful and hilarious blog, The Honest Toddler. Like the blog, this book will make you laugh at the realities of mom life.

When I first heard about this book, I assumed it was her memoir. It isn’t. It is actually a fictional book about characters in the mom world. Specifically, one mom who wants to be a great mom but thinks she is failing compared to all the good moms she sees around her, on social media, and on television. (Sound familiar?)

The mommy guru she follows is hosting a mom competition with the winning mommy being award lots of money – and a prestigious mommy award. The main character, Ashley Keller, is thrilled when she is selected to be one of the contestants.

However, in the midst of the competition, she is dealing with the frustrations of not enough sleep, a dirty house, a pestering mother-in-law, marriage troubles, financial troubles, etc. She is also finding stay at home motherhood to be desperately lonely. 

While the motherhood competition sounds silly, the author uses her trademark poke fun at the ridiculousness to make it entertaining. For example, one event is focused on crafting which results in some hilariously realistic examples of moms who do versus moms who don’t.

I laughed throughout the book because I did recognize many of the mothers in this book. Even if they are caricatures, it is still easy to see who is who and what mommy tribe they belong in. There were several times I wanted to smack Ashley because she did things that were foolish (such as pretending to breastfeed to make friends in the Le Leche League). But, in the end, you will end up rooting for her.

I actually listened to the audiobook version of this novel and I found it very enjoyable. It was an entertaining and funny book to listen to and the narrator did a wonderful job. My husband even listened along with me in the car one day and thought it was funny. *Side note – we had to frantically turn it off when there is an unfortunate phone sex debacle that we didn’t want to explain to the children in the back seats. Haha!

The book is encouraging to moms and points out what we often try to hide – no one knows what they are doing and no one has it all together. 

I highly recommend it to all my friends doing their best to survive the early stages of motherhood, as well as fans of Bridget Jones and the Shopaholic series. It is a book that should be gifted at baby showers letting soon-to-be-moms know everyone is just full of it. 

* You may order this book from Amazon here. This is an affiliate link. Thank you for supporting my blog!