We Need to Talk About the Conditions of My Imprisonment: Book Review

April 19, 2018November 14, 2019 joshuasdadjames

Have you ever wondered what would happen if 21 of the most amusing parenting bloggers joined forces to create a literary masterpiece? Well wonder no longer as Ms Awesome, Mother Extroadinaire has satisfied your curiosity!

Admittedly the really famous one from Devon, the one that likes gin and draws awesome stick men doodles and the bloke that has a quote from Ashton Kutcher on his book aren’t necessarily in this literary masterpiece but the 21 of us that are in there are still bloody amazing!

Well, 20 of us are bloody amazing anyway – I’m bang average, but let’s skip over that for now like a gazelle frolicking through the forest and dive into the book itself…

The Book

The book attempts to inject a bit of humour and gritty reality into the wibbly wobbly world of parenting. It’s a bit like a ‘proper’ parenting manual but is funnier, shorter, and contains significantly less preachy, teachy bollocks. All good things in my mind!

Admittedly it doesn’t tell you what to do if your small person develops nipple confusion or can’t feed string through a Shreddie or has a touch of reflux but you can Google all that stuff anyway.

What it does do is make you laugh.

A lot.

And hopefully make you feel a little bit less like you’re alone in all this, doing everything wrong and / or going slowly insane.

As the lovely Harriet from Toby & Roo says in her brilliant foreword:

‘These are those stories, those relatable moments that are far from perfect but make the bones and reality of parenthood.’

One of the best things about this book is that is that the comedy is told in 21 different voices, so there should be something in there that tickles your fancy. Another bonus is that each chapter is short but sweet which means you can pick it up and have a quick chuckle when you get a spare 5 mins rather than having to dedicate a whole evening to it.

Quite a few of the contributors have also regularly appeared on this lovely website, like Dawn from Rhyming With Wine, Suzanne from And another ten things, Gemma from Colleyswobbles, Alan from OMG It’s A Girl, Emma from Island Living 365 and Claire from Life, Love & Dirty Dishes so you should know how awesome they are already! If you don’t know how awesome they are already just click on the links above!

So whether it’s brilliantly funny rhymes that take your fancy, or stories about PENIS, or secret agents, or special cuddles or Peppa Pig addiction you’ll love this book.

It’s pretty exciting when most of your favourite bloggers get together to make something and it’s even more awesome when you’re a part of it – so I’m genuinely proud to be involved with ‘We Need To Talk About The Conditions Of My Imprisonment…’