'You've got to laugh when you're a parent' - Emily Writes on the joy and heartbreak of parenting

July 30, 2018

Emily Writes joined Breakfast to talk about her new book ‘Is it Bedtime Yet?’ and how to deal with judgemental strangers.

There's plenty of parenting advice telling you how to raise your children, but now a new voice is emerging - mummy bloggers.

One of them, Emily Writes, has teamed up with some of her wittiest friends for a new book, called 'Is it Bedtime Yet?'.

"[The book] is saying, 'Don't have all of those judgements and all of the people that assume they know better than you do with your families. Parents - it's a really difficult job, but I've never met a parent who doesn't want to do the very best that they can and we're all out, they're trying so hard to be really great parents and we've got all these people on the sidelines," Emily said.

"This [book] is kind of saying, 'Block them out. Listen and hear all these different experiences about parenting and feel confident in your choices.' I think you can learn a lot from other parents, but that's got to come from a place of love and empathy and laughing, because you've got to laugh when you're a parent."

Emily says her latest book is "special" because it incorporates a range of different voices.

"When Penguin Random House talked about a second book quite soon after the first, I thought I really want to have other voices. I really want people to see that there's so many different types of ways to parent and that those differences actually don't divide us, they unite us."

Emily says she gets inspiration for her books from her "beautiful boys", who are three and five.

"They're just endlessly delightful and - you know what I mean. I love them to death. I was just thinking about how I brought my oldest son from Wellington for the book launch yesterday and he just fawned around me while I was trying to read and I thought, 'This is kids'. I loved that the book launch just turned into this chaos of children doing whatever they liked."

She says she loves all of the writers and their pieces which help make up part of the book.

"I love that there are pieces in there that will make your heart really break for the mother and then the next story makes you feel strong and powerful in the next story.

"There's so many things I love about the book. I especially love that when it came, there's a photo of me in the front and my son said why isn't there a photo of him because it's his book, apparently. I said, 'Maybe next time?'"

Emily says she never expected her book to take off as quickly as it did, saying, "It's really only been two years since I wrote that first blog post and I'm as confused as anyone as to how I got to two books now, but I feel very lucky and I feel like I have this beautiful community of mothers across New Zealand.

"I've been able to meet thousands of mothers and that's far better than any book or anything like that. It's been such a pleasure."

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