THE FIRST RULE OF #MOTHERHOOD

Motherhood is considered a thankless job by some and a blessing by others.

Over the twenty plus years that I have been a member of the Moms Club, my perspective has changed again and again and again. Each milestone brings with it new challenges, new experiences, and if you're looking for it, plenty of laughs.

For the past few weeks, as Mother's Day approaches, I've been tweeting some of my real time observations and am sharing them with all my fellow club members today .

#ItsAMomThing

Some are nice:

Motherhood is needing a nap, but not wanting to miss even a second with your kids.. .

Motherhood is listening to other parents groan about their kids being out of school for the summer while you secretly do a happy dance...

Some are unspoken understandings:

First rule of motherhood: We all know the kids make the schedules, but we don't talk about it.

Motherhood is buying the pizza, but not actually getting a slice...

 A few are sacrifices that come with the job:

Some make you laugh hard enough to get you through the day:

I love my kids...I swear I love my kids...

Motherhood is not talking to your kids in the same way you would as if it was a total stranger that threw up on your shoes...

Motherhood is smiling because your kids are being nice to each other--about three seconds before one starts screaming that the other licked her face...

Some defy categorization:

And some make you feel like the luckiest girl ever:

Motherhood is full of surprises. Like when you tell the kids to clean the house and you get no response--because they are actually cleaning.

#Motherhood
is being tackled by your kids on Mother's Day. And although you are lying underneath three bodies, knees bruised and hip probably broken, you choke back tears. Not because you are being strangled by their intense hugs, but because you feel completely and utterly LOVED.

CF Winn is the award-winning author of The COFFEE BREAK SERIES, a quirky group of short stories meant to be read while on break or in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. Her first novella, SUKI, has been grabbing hearts and hugging souls all over the United States. 

You can now order SUKI in paperback at http://hopress-shorehousebooks.com/cf-winn/  or at BOOK REVUE, one of the nation’s largest independent bookstores, by email at info@bookrevue.com Learn more about SUKI at BOOK REVUE. 

CF Winn is the founder of Winning! Publications, a firm specializing in editing and promotion services for authors. Her latest project is the just released Trailer Trash, With a Girl’s Name, a hilarious and heartwarming story of a boy saddled with a girl’s name and forced into a nomadic existence. Order it now: http://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Trash-With-Girls-Name-ebook/dp/B00IX0MIAO 

FOLLOW me on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, and CF_Winn on Instagram.

WHAT'S YOUR STORY??...MEET DONALD

At the SUKI book launch, I was asked about where I get my characters/stories from. I answered, “I am the Taylor Swift of the literary world…if we experience it together, or if you tell me about it… you should now consider yourself warned.”

Everyone has a story, and everybody is interesting. I have a gift for digging that out. I will be compiling them here for your reading pleasure. As one SUKI fan put it, “…it’s unbelievable how you just never know what somebody has been through in life…” Believe me, you never know the impact your experience may have on someone else.

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Meet DONALD:
He was shy about putting his picture up with his post, but this thirty-something year old is very outspoken when it comes to history. If you so much as mispronounce Iroquois…by including the silent “S”… he will be all over you before you can finish reciting the famous rhyme that reminds schoolchildren of what year, “Columbus sailed the ocean blue”. A few years back, he had dreamed of becoming a Social Studies teacher, but at that time, there was a surplus of candidates for that subject. He settled for being a gym teacher and made peace with dressing in sweats everyday while hanging out and playing games with his middle school students.

Donald was in his element. Although he has no biological kids of his own, he has been a surrogate father to his niece and nephew since they were born to his teenage sister, ten years ago. His own father walked out on his mom, and when Donald saw the conditions in which his sister was raising her own kids, he stepped in quickly, wanting them to have a better life. Even before landing a job at the school, Donald was in the Big Brother mentoring program, and coached little league baseball…he has my vote for: Most Committed to Today’s Youth!

As we talked though, I said, “Donald, you sound like the perfect guy, but we both know that’s not true…nobody’s perfect. So what is one bad habit that you are willing to reveal to my readers?”

Read the rest and find out what Donald told me at:

http://www.readsuki.com/whats-your-story/

If you’d like to contribute your story, email me at: cfwinn@readsuki.com

Write Tips: The MILF Factor

Every school yard has one...the single mother. The MILF.

She's easily identified as the pretty young thing that sashays onto the blacktop wearing tight, revealing clothes. She flirts with all of the dads. She's a threat, waiting for the perfect moment to bed as many husbands as possible.

Writers! Ready to take pen to the paper?

YAWN!

Write Tip #1:Don't Stereotype

That woman is the typical mid life crisis, wet dream kind of story...exciting, but only to the guy who wakes up having to wash his sheets the next day. The MILF fantasy from the perspective of the horny guy and the jealous wife is predictable on and off the pages.

Take a look:

Today, a man phone-tapped his wife on Z-100. He had Danielle Monaro pose as the notorious single mother and call to ask if said man would "swing by her house and put a shelf up". The wife was not happy. She called her husband and sarcastically bestowed on him the title of, "Friendly Guy of the Year". She informed Danielle that she felt comfortable speaking for all of the mothers at school by saying that Danielle had overstepped by taking her hubby up on his offer to "give her a hand if she ever needed it".

And there you have it.

The stereotypic response to a woman who calls this couple's house and DOESN'T hang up when the wife answers. They have an entire conversation, and the big bad single mother states that she isn't looking to sleep with the woman's husband. Shockingly, the wife doesn't believe her.

Then the husband admits to having regular dialogue with this woman and to offering her assistance, but still, his agenda must be to sneak around and have an affair.

Snooze, cat nap, deep sleep...

Wifey also addressed the single mom's wardrobe. She said she comes to pick up her kids with her boobs falling out. Wow! Wardrobe malfunctions at the elementary school! Where do THEY live?

Let's jump out of crazy jealous Wifey's head, and into one of a sane person.

Has anyone who's ever gotten a boob job done it with the intention of hiding them behind high necked, loosely fitting clothes? Most teens and twenty somethings, or even those that look like them, show it as long as they can, fearing in the back of their minds that one day they may not have it to show anymore.

Juices should be flowing...inching over into another perspective...wait for it...

Why is this woman single?

Write Tip #2: Build the character.

Is she divorced? Is she a widow? Was she never married but left alone to raise her baby-daddy's kids?

Suddenly, this threat is a human being with some depth.

Would a woman in any one of these situations feel so bad that she might feel she needs a little attention just to get through the day? Maybe it's not YOUR HUSBAND she's after, but an anonymous glance.

And here's one to chew on: Did she dress that way, not for your husband, but for the guy at work she's interested in? And she doesn't have time to change before picking up the kids?

I was that single mother.

I had three kids and didn't look like it. Blessed with good genes, I looked ten years younger than my actual age. I wasn't willing to dress in the standard sweatpants and t-shirt uniform I so often see at school pickups. I was working multiple jobs and feeling bad about the situation my kids and I were in. I knew that if I let myself go completely, I'd never recover. When someone was nice enough to say "Hello" to me, I certainly wasn't going to be rude or turn down adult conversation.

Not A MILF. Just A Mom.

WRITE TIP #3: Perspective

From the perspective of this single mother, I spent a long time mourning the loss of partnership...not looking for it. When I was finally ready to get back out there, I wasn't looking for a guy who was already taken, or one with kids. I already had three.

I would have loved it if someone would have shown me some kindness by offering to help me out with anything. I didn't have the time, energy or know-how to do many of the things that needed to get done. If a man would have come to help and brought his wife along, maybe she and I could have been friends. I would have been so grateful because being the single girl can be awfully lonely and isolating at times.

On behalf of MILFs everywhere, do we want your husbands, the middle aged, beer bellied, balding guys we see at the schoolyard?

Write Tip #4: Take The Plot Less Traveled

There are often many sides to a story, and exploring them can mean writing the next great hit.

CF Winn is the award-winning author of The COFFEE BREAK SERIES, a quirky group of short stories meant to be read while on break or in the waiting room of the doctor’s office. Her first novella, SUKI, has been grabbing hearts and hugging souls all over the United States. 

You can now order SUKI in paperback at BOOK REVUE, one of the nation’s largest independent bookstores, by email at info@bookrevue.com Learn more about SUKI at BOOK REVUE. 

CF Winn is the founder of Winning! Publications, a firm specializing in editing and promotion services for authors. Her latest project is the just released Trailer Trash, With a Girl’s Name, a hilarious and heartwarming story of a boy saddled with a girl’s name and forced into a nomadic existence. Order it now: http://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Trash-With-Girls-Name-ebook/dp/B00IX0MIAO