Blow-Drying the Frog & Other Parenting Adventures

So, when was the last time you tried to blow-dry a frog? Maybe never -- but if you're a parent, you'll appreciate how a mom's fast thinking earned her some special frog kisses from her young boys early one morning.

"Frogenstein" is only one of the 47 real-life funny stories included in Blow-Drying the Frog and Other Parenting Adventures. Collected from the pages of the award-winning journal Welcome Home, these essays run riot through all the stages of parenting, from one parent’s difficulties in selecting a name for her expected-any-day baby, to another’s experiences in taking teenage boys to the mall. And most of us will recognize that well-intentioned effort that turns into a minor disaster – the attempt to make applesauce that results in an exploding sewer system, the holiday gingerbread house project that doesn’t turn out quite like the magazine picture, the new carpet that turns out to be a big mistake. These are real families, not the polished adults and precocious kids that bombard us in advertisements and media creations. These mothers and fathers deal with trips to the grocery store, suffer marital discord over what color to paint the bathroom, and go toe-to-toe with rambunctious toddlers. We laugh because we’ve been there ourselves, or we hear the voice of an exasperated friend in these tales. Blow-Drying the Frog will help you discover the humor in your parenting adventures -- and maybe even inspire your own storytelling.

Parent-to-parent connections and laughs – the best kind of stress relief—will have you returning again and again to read your favorites from this engaging 240-page book.

For over twenty years, the source of these stories, the monthly journal Welcome Home, has brought affirmation and information to parents across the U.S. and around the world. Winner of four Parents’ Choice awards and a Parent's Guide to Children's Media Award for Outstanding Achievement in Parenting Materials, Welcome Home proudly invites parents to write about their feelings, insights and observations. We publish the best each month in 32 beautifully illustrated, advertisement-free pages. In addition to humorous stories, Welcome Home includes personal essays expressing the joys and challenges of parenthood, informative articles about family life and health, poetry, parent-to-parent problem solving, media watch and public policy articles, along with original artwork and photographs. Written, edited and illustrated by parents, Welcome Home is published by the nonprofit organization Family and Home Network. We invite parents everywhere to join our thoughtful and caring community.