The World Deserves My Children

August 22, 2022
In her irreverent debut, comedian and Chelsea Lately regular Leggero shares musings on motherhood in a series of wise-cracking essays. “I decided to become a mom when I was in my prime, but the world most certainly was not,” she quips about getting pregnant “no matter how bad” politics and climate change threatened to turn, at age 42 (using eggs frozen when she was 38). No topic is off-limits; Leggero bares all about “geriatric pregnancy,” breastfeeding, parental anxiety, and her conversion to “Jew-by-choice.” She
mocks her husband, joking she’d have to be drunk to parent like a father (“Don’t use Dawn on her! She’s a baby not a duck after an oil spill”), and resolutely defends having only one child. Her brand of humor includes crossing-the-line bits like referring to Woody Allen and Soon-Yi’s coupling as “the greatest love story of our time” and recalling that as a tween she “thought abortion was hilarious.” Parents without the luxury of a nanny may also raise eyebrows when yet another celebrity laments lack of leisure time. Still, behind the snark, Leggero conveys tender endearment for her four-year-old daughter. All in all, this will induce grins from stand-up fans who’ve been missing shows because they can’t get a babysitter. Agent: Cait Hoyt & Anthony Mattero, CAA.

October 1, 2022

Actress and stand-up comedian Leggero (Netflix's The Honeymoon Stand-Up Special) never wanted kids. But she still decided to freeze her eggs in case she changed her mind. That day came at age 42. After several unsuccessful rounds of IVF, Leggero used her precious, stored eggs to start her "geriatric" pregnancy. She depicts how her life has drastically changed since her daughter was born. In a series of essays, she covers her life before children, the drastically different parenting styles between her husband and her, her Judaism conversion, a newfound fear of everything, nannies, and her love for another human that's greater than self-love. Her dry, sarcastic wit comes through as she describes how her childhood and other experiences shaped her views of motherhood and child-rearing. Although the book is sequenced for each essay to build on the previous one, the collection makes for repetitive reading at times. Leggero captures the thoughts and fears of many new parents, but details about full-time nannies, hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on fertility doctors, and private preschools makes her first-time parent experience very different from most. VERDICT Leggero fans will enjoy the book, and new parents will likely find her candor humorous.--Rebekah J. Buchanan

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2022
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.

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