THE WORLD DESERVES MY CHILDREN

A comedian offers a humorous assessment of parenting.

Leggero’s journey into motherhood began when she froze her eggs at age 38 while still single, thinking “maybe one day I might want a kid, in the same way I thought I might eventually want an infinity hot tub.” When she was 42, happily married and eager to be a mother, she and her husband began what she describes as a vigorous (and ultimately successful) in-vitro fertilization process. The author also recounts her life’s journey. She was an overachieving child who grew up with “an overwhelmed single mother” in Rockford, Illinois, and she studied theater in college. She shares amusing anecdotes about taking acting classes with a not-yet-famous Paris Hilton and ascending the ranks of the Hollywood improv comedy circuit. Leggero gets real about the more difficult aspects of motherhood, including the evaporation of free time (“the end to all fun”), child discipline, anxiety, and “cleaning up after my husband.” Nonetheless, she wouldn’t change a thing, and her daughter has become a “new reason to live.” Many aspects of her motherhood journey will resonate with a wide variety of readers, including breastfeeding and pandemic-era parenting, though she satirically skewers just about everything else with gleeful abandon. As one would expect from a former Chelsea Lately guest panelist (73 appearances), Leggero’s snark comes fast and furious throughout biting quips about nannies and the terror of having her elderly parents babysit. Occasionally, the humor feels forced—e.g., when she is mockingly critical of her husband, dubbing his Judaism as “the religion my husband forced me to convert to,” though she ultimately concedes he was “worth giving up Christmas for.” Leggero also straightforwardly addresses her reasons for not wanting another child, and overall, she achieves a commendable balance among practical advice, wry commentary, and over-the-top offensiveness.

The benefits and headaches of later-life motherhood from a candid, often hilarious comedic mind.