Confessions To My Mother

Cathy Little Books

by Cathy Guisewite

For years, Cathy and her mother have been working out their relationship on the comic pages in such an honest, relatable, humor-filled way that thousands of mothers and daughters have written to say the comic strip is the single thing that has helped them keep speaking to each other over the years.

In Confessions to My Mother , Cathy helps daughters speak to their mothers in an even more poignant way--with page after page of everything from embarrassing truths...

"The last time you came to visit I spent a whole day hiding things before you got here."

to belated admissions...

I'm sorry for the 10 to 15 years I spent grunting at you."

to personal revelations...

The inside of my bathroom cabinet looks exactly as bad as the inside of your bathroom cabinet."

and heartfelt sentiments..

"When I make your chicken soup, it doesn't taste like your chicken soup."

"The thing I am the most sure of in my life is that you love me."

"Because of you, I can't throw out a cardboard box."

According to creator Cathy Guisewite, Confessions to My Mother is "all the deep, insightful, meaningful things I want to say to Mom, but never actually say because I'm too busy acting like a five-year-old when I'm with her."

112 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1999

About the author

Cathy Lee Guisewite is the cartoonist who created the comic strip Cathy in 1976. Her main cartoon character (Cathy) is a career woman faced with the issues and challenges of work, relationships, her mother and food, or as Guisewite herself put it in one of her strips, "The four basic guilt groups."

Guisewite was born in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in Midland, Michigan. She attended the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor where she was a member of the Delta Delta Delta sorority. Guisewite received her bachelor's degree in English in 1972. She also holds seven honorary degrees.

In 1993, Guisewite received the Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year from the National Cartoonists Society. In 1987, she received an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program for the TV special Cathy, which aired on CBS. Guisewite was a frequent guest in the latter years of the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.

Guisewite and her husband Chris Wilkinson reside in Los Angeles. She has a daughter and a stepson.

Reviews

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Favorite bits:
1. When something great or terrible happens to me, you aren't always the first person I tell, but you're always the first person I think of.
2. The fact that you have such a good relationship with God has always made me feel very safe.
3. The thing I am the most sure of in my life is that you love me.
4. The times I notice I'm most like you are when I'm doing something incredibly nice for someone.
5. I'm so proud of how much everyone loves you.
6. I know I have given you lots of wrinkles but, through the miracle of genetics, you've already given some of them right back.
7. Even though I've ignored your free advice all my life, I've paid:
-a nutritionist to tell me to eat my vegetables
-a trainer to tell me to exercise
-a chiropractor to tell me to quit slouching
-a financial adviser to tell me to save some money
-and a therapist to tell me I'm a wonderful human being who can do anything I set my mind to.
8. Every piece of your advice that I've rejected I've now given to someone else. (Spend 5 minutes folding clothes right out of the dryer, and you'll save hours of ironing later.)
8. When you're not here, I'm as cheap as you are.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of these will remind almost every reader of their mother or Their child. This short book in preparation for essay: Fifty things that aren’t my fault

[Annburnett · Rating 3 out of 5]

cool book and easy to read.

[Bladestryke · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very cute quick read. A very honest and relatable account of her relationship with her mother.