The Other Mother: A wickedly honest parenting tale for every kind of family

Product Information

As a self-described ‘beige lesbian’, Jen Brister offers an insight into what it’s like being the ‘other’ mother in the relationship and the questions she often has to answer. She also goes some way to fill a gap in a growing group of parents who have a slightly different experience to heteronormative couples. From conceiving outside of the ‘norm’ to deciding what to call yourselves as parents (to avoid the confusions of children yelling mummy at two people), Jen Brister captures a snapshot of what parenting looks like in our modern society. She has written and performed seven solo shows around the world, including at Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Norway Comedy Box Festival, Comedy Club Asia, Adelaide Festival, and the Edinburgh Festival. She has toured extensively, with comedians Kerry Godliman, Francesca Martinez, and Roisin Conaty, and Frankie Boyle. The Other Mother is not only a hilariously funny and authentic read but it is also a new kind of parenting book which portrays the changing landscape of parenting. We should no longer expect every family to look the same, as Brister explains to her own children; some kids have a mum and dad, some have two mums, some have two dads, and some have just a mum or just a dad, and all of these families share some of the same problems of parenting.

I really enjoyed this book. From the first few lines, everything about it is drenched in the love that Brister so obviously has for her family, which is beautiful. The way she writes highlights her love for them even when, at times, things are (quite literally) shitty, and you just can't underestimate how heartwarming and reassuring that is. As you would expect from a comedian, Brister writes with wit and peppers her narrative with funny episodes. Her tone is honest and open, inviting the reader to empathise and engage with her and her situations. I particularly enjoyed the times when she wrote about being a non-biological parent - the careless assumptions of others, her feelings as she bonded with her sons, the way she viewed her partner as a mother - as these made the book original and heartwarming.

Its success has led to the commission of two more books in the series, starting with Death and Fromage due out in July. Changing the way we bring up our boys - Jen Brister - TEDxBrighton". youtube.com. Archived from the original on 21 December 2021 . Retrieved 28 May 2019.

In 2018, Brister took her sixth show Meaningless to the Edinburgh festival, where she had a sell-out run. This was the first show she had toured around the UK. He wrote He two comic accounts of moving to France as a middle-aged English mod: A La Mod: My So-Called Tranquil Family Life In Rural France in 2013 and C'est Modnifique!: Adventures of an English Grump in Rural France in 2014.This began as an intriguing look into the dynamics of same-sex parenthood, looking at how it can feel to be the parent who’s not pregnant or who didn’t bring the kids into the world. I found the honesty around Brister’s relationship to feel like fresh air, and she didn’t hide from sharing everything, even things which may not have been flattering but were real. Bottom line, it's a book which in no way sets out to make her especially likeable, but through which her likeability seeps anyway, almost against her will. It's a book of laughter, logic and love which gives the hearty finger to pretentiousness and guff - which frankly feels like just the right mood with which to scream towards 2020. Recommended, this one. If you're a parent, some of it will strike shivers of remembrance or cameraderie fown your spine. If you're not, you'll still enjoy it while feeling slightly smug.

Comic Maureen Younger, who is hilarious and has a unique approach to common sense. Like the time we arranged to meet in Southwark. After waiting 10 mins outside the tube station I phoned to find out where she was. “London Bridge,” she said. Apparently I hadn’t specified where in the borough of Southwark so she’d taken a guess. You can’t fault her logic. The funniest dream I’ve ever had … I dreamed that I was Gary Barlow’s girlfriend and we were really happy, which was weird for two reasons: 1) because I’m a lesbian, and 2) because I always fancied Howard. The funniest meal I’ve ever eaten …

Ed chooses his most precious items to wang into the Wonderbox, which includes some food-based choices (as you might expect from one who foods as passionately as Ed). Come for the food, then stay for Ed waxing lyrical about his love of Mr Blobby. Brister was born in Kingston-upon-Thames, Greater London, in 1975 to an English father and a Spanish mother. She has three brothers. [2] Brister was raised as a Catholic [3] and went to all girls' Ursuline High School, Wimbledon. [4] She then went on to Richmond College. [5] Her Spanish-born mother is a frequent target of her comedy shows. [6] Stand-up career [ edit ] This book explains a lot more about her life than I knew. Yes, she's a mother of, as it happens, twin sons (now around 4 or 5 years old), but the meaning of the title is that she's a lesbian in a committed relationship, whose girlfriend was the bio-carrier of the boys, so Brister has always seen herself as their 'other' mother.

Matthews, Nammie (31 May 2018). "BN1 chats to… Jen Brister". bn1magazine.co.uk . Retrieved 28 May 2019. In 2020 she was due to take her UK tour [19] of Under Privilege to the Machynlleth Comedy Festival at The Tabernacle, Machynlleth. [20] Cutting Edge Of Comedy - competition review". Metro.co.uk. 12 August 2002. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012.Chamberlain, Julia; Bennett, Steve (1 January 2006). "Jen Brister: Me, My Mum & I". chortle.co.uk . Retrieved 28 May 2019. Cyril has no relationship with his adoptive father. Then you learn that he's struggling with his sexuality, so he's growing up in an Ireland that’s still really strict. Comedian Jen Brister writes about her personal experience of motherhood from the time she and her partner Chloe decide to have children, through the birth of their twin sons and those early sleepless nights, up to the boys reaching four years old. She shares the highs and lows of that time, the expectations of others and also her own misguided expectations, and how what she has learned in that time has shaped her current perspective. Paskett, Zoe (5 December 2018). "Jen Brister interview: 'I was strangling my career, but I don't give a f*** anymore' ". Evening Standard . Retrieved 28 May 2019. Catherine moves to Dublin, she has a baby called Cyril and she gives him up for adoption. The book is basically about their two lives, her life and his life, and they’re both treated as outcasts. Because she never got married but had a child that she had to give up for adoption, and Cyril is this boy who grows up with his adoptive parents, who were really eccentric – one’s an author who chain smokes.