Wife and mother Ledbetter has suddenly found herself a woman of a certain age with the attendant body, but still has children young enough to need supervision at the pool: a peculiarly '90s dilemma. In the tradition of the late Erma Bombeck, she leads us down the not-so-primrose paths of marriage, motherhood and endless housework.



Humor is difficult, but domestic humor is almost impossible. An exception to that premise is Ms. Ledbetter." -- Dallas Morning News

"If I were a kid again, there'd be galaxies of bright and shining What Will Bes to wish upon. I'd dream of do-anything-I-want tomorrows when I'd be an adult and not dependent on anyone. The future would stretch like a ball of soft taffy: warm, sweet, and infinitely flexible.

"Except I am grown up, and sometimes I catch myself wishing upon the star of What Was: cherishing the remembrance of days when it was okay to fail, okay to cry, okay not to know any better, okay to be afraid of inexplicable things that probably don't exist, and okay to want to be taken care of sometimes.

"When I was a kid, those wet-behind-the-ears years seemed much like measles: something to be gotten over as quickly as possible.

"But now, how I wish I could catch that youthful affliction again. Of course, if I did, how differently it would be diagnosed. A midlife crisis, other grown-ups might call it..."

-- from "Second Childhood"