We Are Experiencing Parental Difficulties...Please Stand By

Baby Blues Scrapbooks #5

by Rick Kirkman, Jerry Scott

Now that baby Zoe is a full-fledged mobile toddler, everyone can sit back and heave a big sigh of AAAAACCCH! The indefatigable MacPhersons are bringing up baby in a wild-eyed, yet true to life. Darryl and Wanda, a typical stretched-to-the-limit couple, struggled with the demands and joys of first-time parenthood in classics such as Guess Who Didn't Take a Nap? and I Thought Labor Ended When the Baby Was Born . The MacPhersons found parenthood more rewarding and frustrating than they ever expected. Through it all they adapted to this new addition to their lives with aplomb and severe exhaustion. We Are Experiencing Parental Difficulties...Please Stand By is a Baby Blues collection from creators Rick Kirkman and Jerry Scott. In the pair's lovingly realistic way, the book captures the continuing challenges Darryl and Wanda face as Zoe begins to walk, talk, and take over the remote control. It's a natural growing-up progression that Baby Blues fans have watched with rapt interest. Mothers love the strip because they can relate to Wanda's continued surprise at how her days have changed, from career woman to Mom, especially as she faces the prospects of adding another bundle of joy to the MacPhersons' already busy household. Dads laugh knowingly as Darryl tries to help out and hold down a demanding job. Everyone cherishes the little Zoe for making childhood antics (even the obnoxious ones) so adorable. Artist Kirkman and writer Scott obviously know about parenting-you can see it in every strip they produce. In this book, they provide another delicious view of life's most precious mixed blessing.

Genres: Comics, Humor, Bande Dessinée, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics, Comic Strips, Graphic Novels

128 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1995

About the author

Rick Kirkman is a cartoonist and co-creator of the comic strip Baby Blues. He received the National Cartoonist Society Newspaper Comic Strip Award in 1995, and the Reuben Award in 2012 for his work on the strip. He also served as co-executive producer of The WB animated television series of Baby Blues.

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the Baby Blues comic. This is a great book to pick up for a quick read when you need just a bit of downtime.

Re-read 2017

I still love these comics. While I don't have children of my own, I have seen some of the comic played out with nieces and nephews.

[Glen · Rating 3 out of 5]

My newspaper didn't get the Baby Blues strip since the inception. There were always 3 children in the strip I read. Imagine my surprise when the parents only had one child.

Some of the strips are pretty funny, but I think it's better in the current configuration.

[Mireille Duval · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this because I felt nauseous after an entire day sitting on the couch watching the Olympics, so I picked this up and read it on the sun-filled porch. It was just what the doctor ordered. Funny without being mean, and very sweet. I feel like a lot of the baby jokes I hear are about what a pain babies are, and they are and this did talk about that, but it came from such a place of love, it was wonderful.

The strip where Wanda describes how much fun Darryl is probably having at work, with adults and nice lunch restaurants, and how Wanda herself quit her career to watch Zoe grow, and you can feel how dejected she is, but then Zoe says "mama!" while touching her mother's face? And Wanda says "Poor dad!" while hugging her daughter close? I felt a lot of things, that's all I'm saying.

[Katt Hansen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a long time since I've read Baby Blues - and I think this one pre-dates my exposure to the comic strip because I don't remember a time when there was just one child (though it makes logical sense). I liked this book a great deal as it covered the time when parenting your first child and everything is new through the time of learning to walk and talk, and when food and outings was always a huge adventure. There is an awful lot of truisms in this volume.

Gosh those days seem like a long time ago now. It's amazing how we got through it. :)

[Nancy Bandusky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The reader does not need to be a parent to enjoy the humor in the situations presented in this collection. It is a fast read when one is taking a break from the daily grind. The drawings add to the enjoyment, especially some of Zoe's faces.

[Brooke · Rating 2 out of 5]

The jokes were more mean than funny.

[Suzanne Lorraine Kunz Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love to take a break with the little snippets of life that Rick Kirkman does.

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic Baby Blues.