“This slender softcover book, published by a small Manitoba press, is a moving and fast-moving account about being a mother of four children who range in age from two to eight.

Toronto-based Laura Pratt, both the author and the mother, has contributed to three books on parenting and writes regularly for publications such as The National Post, and Canadian Living. She clearly lovers sharing her most intimate reflections with readers.

Where she finds the time, of course, is the big mystery.

Her passion translates into a collection of alternately touching and funny very short, self-contained chapters. Busy readers can easily pick up and put down this book without disrupting its flow.

Pratt has a knack for conveying her emotions, which allows readers to feel what she's feeling.

At times, her entertaining style is evocative of cartoonist Lynn Johnston of For Better or For Worse fame. At other times, she reads like a satirical version of the pregnancy bible What to Expect When You're Expecting.

For example, she says the last days of pregnancy "can drag like the first slow ooze from a new bottle of ketchup."

Of her physician-induced labour, she wryly observes: "The contractions took on the characteristics of a small freight train ripping through the rocky interior caverns of my viscera (the nurse's disparaging characterization of them as 'cramps' notwithstanding.)"

Pratt views parenting as the fleeting years, because each stage in a child's life is so brief. As soon as her babies are born, she's painfully aware of how quickly they'll grow up.

This is the recurrent theme throughout her book, and although every parent knows whereof she speaks, sometimes it's repeated a bit too often.

Still, it's hard to fault Pratt when she confesses of motherhood: "Nothing has to poignantly reminded me to savour every sweet moment that punctuates the rushing parade of childhood. And I am thankful to have been included in the procession."

Her chapter on INternet friendships with other mothers is relevant to more than just parents.

She writes that studies show internet relationships are sometimes more interesting in part because of the "isolated activity of tapping away at a keyboard in the privacy of your home. These women know stuff about me that nobody else does."

Pratt says she had mixed reactions to her announcement that she was pregnant for the fourth time. But her thoughts on having another child are interesting.

She believes that the moment you accept that you'll never have another child is the same moment you accept that "aside from the odd wedding and really wicked graduation party, the next watershed event in your life will be your death."

"What better way to thumb your nose at the aging process than to squeeze out another baby?"

Pratt herself admits that she has given birth for the final time. She humorously characterizes parents as "personal secretaries to their pint-sized bosses."

Later in the book, she tugs at the heartstrings when she observes "This is what it is to be a mommy. I will think: perching on the edge of a bed, listening to the laboured breathing of your babies and wishing, somehow, to take away their pain."

Pratt cleverly addresses societal pressure to stop breastfeeding, when she feels reluctant to do so: "The thought of breaking this sweet connection--during which I drink her in as much as she does me --is simply too hard to swallow."

Pratt's view of parenting makes for a charming, candid, and insightful work.”

— Brenlee Carrington The Winnipeg Free Press