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    I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids
    I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids
    I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids
    Ebook264 pages4 hours

    I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales From a Happy Life Without Kids

    By Jen Kirkman

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    In this instant New York Times bestseller that’s “boldly funny without being anti-mom” (In Touch), comedian and Chelsea Lately regular Jen Kirkman champions every woman’s right to follow her own path—even if that means being “childfree by choice.”

    In her debut memoir, actress and comedian Jen Kirkman delves into her off-camera life with the same snarky sensitivity and oddball humor she brings to her sold-out standup shows and the Chelsea Lately roundtable, where she is a writer and regular performer. As a woman of a certain age who has no desire to start a family, Jen often finds herself confronted (by friends, family, and total strangers) about her decision to be “childfree by choice.” I Can Barely Take Care of Myself offers honest and hilarious responses to questions like “Who will take care of you when you get old?” (Servants!) and a peek into the psyche—and weird and wonderful life—of a woman who has always marched to the beat of a different drummer and is pretty sure she’s not gonna change her mind, but thanks for your concern.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster
    Release dateApr 16, 2013
    ISBN9781451667011
    Author

    Jen Kirkman

    Jen Kirkman is a world-touring stand-up comedian and the author of the New York Times bestseller I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales of a Happy Life Without Kids and I Know What I’m Doing—And Other Lies I Tell Myself: Dispatches from a Life Under Construction. Her Netflix original comedy special I'm Gonna Die Alone and I Feel Fine streams worldwide, and she has released two comedy albums, Self Help and Hail to the Freaks (which hit #13 on the Billboard charts). She was a longtime writer and panelist on the E! Network’s Chelsea Lately and the narrator of many episodes in the award-winning TV show Drunk History on Comedy Central.

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    Reviews for I Can Barely Take Care of Myself

    4/5

    23 ratings5 reviews

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    • 4/5
      This book " I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Such From to Happy Life Without Kids " it seemed to me to be really interesting. It is true that has some parts better than other, but in general, I like me very much.
      I will recommend to read this book to my friends.
    • 4/5
      I really liked this book, it's the best I've read in a while. I ALMOST gave it 5 stars, but I sort of feel I should reserve 5 stars for those books that really change your world (for me, as a single maladjusted male, that means American Psycho or The Dice Man). Anyway, this is the sort of book where you feel like you know the author as you read it. I genuinely looked forward to reading it every time I picked up my iPad.

      Recommend!
    • 5/5
      A.M.A.Z.I.N.G! She's so awesome i love her book so much
    • 5/5
      (originally posted on shelftalker.wordpress.com)

      I am a childfree (CF) lady, just like Jen (I feel like we’re on a first name basis with each other since she responded to my tweet when I flipped out on Twitter about how much I loved this book). We’re both in our thirties and we seem to have the same sense of humor. Beyond that, our lives segue onto very different paths, but for a brief moment in time, while reading her book, I felt as though she could be my doppelgänger.

      And being childfree (especially by choice, which I am) while trying to find others like you isn’t always easy. I’ve almost made it through every book on the subject and I’m always on the look-out for more (granted, there are maybe only seven books total, but writing that makes me seem like a scholar on the subject). When a book can combine self-deprecating humor and embarrassing personal anecdotes to tackle a subject like this, I’m instantly enthusiastic.

      So I messaged Jen seconds after putting the book down (warning: contains some non-grandmother approved words):

      Clara Sayre @clarasayre

      @JenKirkman Just finished your book (I work in a bookstore & got an advance)…FUCKING BRILLIANT.

      @JenKirkman I could relate to everything. It’s said all the time, but I kept thinking you were writing about me….

      @JenKirkman CF guilt? Chk. Saying “well, maybe”? Chk. 13 yrs. of ballet & no body fat? Chk. Weight gain after marriage? Chk. Anxiety? CHK!

      @JenKirkman The list goes on and on and on…anyway, thank you. :) I’m going to be hand-selling the SHIT out of that book when published!

      She direct messaged me back, appreciative of positive feedback regarding her book. My night was made.

      I Can Barely Take Care of Myself is all memoir with none of the boring bits thrown in for continuity sake. Kirkman (a comedian/panelist on E’s Chelsea Lately and After Lately) doesn’t shy away from anything, whether it’s recounting the increasing paranoia & anxiety she experienced at the age of nine after watching the fictional nuclear war movie, The Day After, moving back in with her parents right after graduating college, trying to win back an ex-boyfriend by giving him a copy of Superfudge or her failed attempts at babysitting, which resulted in one child obsessing about untimely death and another one wearing his mom’s lipstick.

      She takes us through her early years of stand-up comedy, relationships that came and went, and how she met her (now ex-) husband. She describes the familiar tale of getting engaged and immediately being hounded with questions about when they were going to have children (and then being asked why they were even bothering getting married if they weren’t having kids). Recounting one of these conversations with an aquaintance at a friend’s wedding, Kirkman is astounded at the woman’s audacity (“Help me. I’m being judged by a woman for an abortion I didn’t have!”) and later tries to convince her husband that he needs to to take the heat off of her by lying and saying he got a vasectomy.

      But my favorite part, by far, is when Reverend Kirkman starts preaching toward the end:

      "I resent having to refer to my career as my baby in order to explain myself to parents. It suggests that as long as a woman has something she feels maternal toward, then she passes as a regular human being . . . Women don’t have to have maternal urges to be women . . . Men don’t call their careers their sons or daughters.

      It’s a weird thing society puts on us women. They tell us that we can have careers . . . and then they tell us that we aren’t real women if we have careers but no babies, and if we dare pick a career over a baby…we better at least talk about that career like it’s a baby in order to blend in and not call attention to the fact that we’re selfish women who are not carrying on the human race."

      I was giddy while reading this book. I was relieved, I was laughing, I was cringing. I dog-eared my way through (for e-readers: that means I bent the page corners over in lieu of a bookmark). I underlined passages that particularly connected with me. I fist-pumped after finishing two different sections that immediately made me feel less self-conscious about myself. Because not only was she able to share snippets of her life that read like a regular memoir but culminate into the many reasons why she’s not having kids, she was also able to connect with the reader on a personal level, especially those of us who wonder if our anxiety disorders play a part in not wanting to become parents.

      This is the childfree memoir I’ve been looking for. This is the book that gave me the courage to write my CF story and submit it to a high-traffic blog, where it was later published. When this book is released in April, I hope that it inspires a whole slew of childfree memoirs by women who need to share their stories, but until now, haven’t found an outlet. I hope that it encourages discussion and awareness that women are so much more than our ability to reproduce.

      And after all of that, you know what’s even better? It’s laugh-out-loud hilarious and a worthy addition to a bookstore’s Humor or Biography section, let alone a Childfree section (hey, a lady can dream, right?).

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Jen Kirkman is a stand-up comedian who decided early in life that she was not meant to be a mother. In I Can Barely Take Care of Myself, she explores the events in her life that led to and confirmed her beliefs in being childfree. With a witty, at times almost cringeworthy voice, Kirkman details her experiences choosing to forego motherhood in a very child-centric world.

      When, in the the first handful of pages, Kirkman compared people badgering her over the need to have kids to them telling her why she needs to watch The Wire, I knew I was going to enjoy this book. Don't get me wrong; I love The Wire, but I didn't watch it until several years after it first aired. I totally know where she's coming from...

      In more ways than one. Though I do want kids eventually, I've been married for almost five years and my husband and I are still enjoying our time without children. I've been in many of the situations Kirkman describes in the book, despite my insistence that I do want to have a child, and her ability to make them humorous had me reading aloud to my husband more than once in gigglefits.

      While it's definitely funny, writing I Can Barely Take Care of Myself off as the work of a snarky comedian lacking substance would be a mistake. Kirkman makes some really interesting social observations. What stood out strongest to me were her comments regarding the fact that women often feel forced to use their career as an excuse for not being mothers. I realized that I often mention work as a reason why my husband and I have decided to wait, when in reality it has very little to do with my career. So, why do I feel like I have to make excuses? As Kirkman mentions further, few people will let any other reason slide by. "As long as a woman has something she feels maternal toward, then she passes as a regular human being. She wants to swaddle her career, so we'll make an exception and give her a pass!"

      Clearly, I am part of a target audience for this book that is rather limited. There are many that will be easily offended by Kirkman's honesty, just as they may be offended by her choice not to have children and this book will not be for them. However, for those who are considering not having children, waiting to have kids or just open to different viewpoints, I Can Barely Take Care of Myself is one you'll want to grab.

      1 person found this helpful

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    I Can Barely Take Care of Myself - Jen Kirkman

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