'Scary Mommy' Shares Her Tips To Survive An Entire Summer With Kids
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — It started as a blog where she would confess her trials and tribulations as a parent-of-three.
Five years later, Scary Mommy is now a website visited by millions, where moms can be honest in anonymous confessionals.
Now the blog's founder, best-selling author Jill Smokler, is offering tips on how to avoid pulling your hair out this summer when the kids are out of school.
She advises planning activities ahead and utilizing friends.
"I think you can swap play dates. I think find another mom who has kids around and you take her kids and she takes your kids another day," she told KCAL9's Andrea Fujii
Stressed out parents may also find some relief on Smokler's blog.
"I have days where I'm screaming my head off and I just need a couple of minutes of peace and nobody at Scary Mommy is going to judge you for that," she said.
Posts on the website are equally candid.
"Even after being away from my kids 12 hours at work I get home and can't stand to be around them," reads one post.
Smokler just released her second book, entitled "Motherhood Comes Naturally And Other Vicious Lies", debunking the myths she was told before she got pregnant.
"(I thought) That it would get easier, that parenting would strengthen a marriage, that I'd bounce back to my old self," she explained.
Despite airing her dirty parenting laundry, Smokler says she wouldn't have it any other way.
"It is the best thing in the world," she said.
Smokler lives in Baltimore with her college sweetheart and three kids: Lily, 9, Ben, 7, and Evan, 5.
"If you can't laugh at some of the situations that you find yourself in, you just cry because it's hard," she said.
Smokler has two book signings this weekend. One is scheduled for Friday night in Brentwood and another Saturday afternoon in Costa Mesa.
