MILF

Motherhood, Identity, Love and F*ckery

By: Paloma Faith

Narrated by: Paloma Faith

Brought to you by Penguin.

Can women have it all? What does it mean to be a woman and a mother in the modern age?

In this passionate, funny and fierce polemic, Paloma Faith delves deep into the issues that face women today, from puberty and sexual awakenings, to battling through the expectations of patriarchy and the Supermum myth.

Infused with Paloma's characteristic humour and raw honesty about the challenges of IVF and the early years of motherhood, this book is a beautiful celebration of women's work and the invisible load women carry. Moving from questions around identity and how motherhood impacts on that, to what it even means to be a "good mother", how we need to embrace messiness, imperfection and the bitter sweet pleasures of being "selfish" and putting ourselves first.

Paloma invites us into her own coming of age and relationship with her mum, to explore how our bonds with our children evolve into adulthood. We see a glimpse of the complexities and joys of Paloma's experience of juggling romantic love, heartbreak and dating with the demands of motherhood.

©2024 Paloma Faith (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Complainy

I’m not a particular fan of Paloma’s music, but I remember enjoying her camaraderie with Noel Fielding and her adorable quirkiness and colourful outfits on Never Mind The Buzzcocks, and i listened her account of her journey to have her first daughter on the Happy Mum Happy Baby podcast. I was going through an infertility journey of my own, and drank in all she said. As a new mother now, I bought this book to hear more about Paloma’s motherhood journey. My main impressions after finishing it are that she complains a lot about how hard pregnancy, birth and caring for children is (though she does emphasise often how much she loves her girls), and how hard it is to be a single mother in particular. She never adequately explains why she chose to end her relationship. It comes across that being with a younger man was fun while child-free and relatively young herself, but that after children arrived, she really would have preferred someone more practically and financially supportive - a better provider. She hardly ever admitted her own shortcomings, and was defensive of her own fairly selfish behaviour. She kind of came across as a bit spoiled and hard to identify with, I guess. I hope she is happy with her choices.