Featuring all original essays by Ellen Gilchrist, Hope Edelman, Pam Houston, Daphne Merkin, Natalie Angier, Vivian Gornick, Jill Bialosky, Helen Schulman, Chitra Divakaruni, Karen Karbo, Kate Christensen, Elissa Schappell, Veronica Chambers, Susan Squire and many more.

First Perennial edition published in 2003.

I.Me, Myself, and I -- Excuse Me While I Explode: My Mother, Myself, My Anger / E. S. Maduro 3 -- Getting the Milk for Free / Veronica Chambers 15 -- Crossing to Safety / Jen Marshall 23 -- Moving In. Moving Out. Moving On / Sarah Miller 35 -- Papa Don't Preach / Kerry Herlihy 45 -- Memoirs of an Ex-Bride: Looking Back. Looking Ahead / Daphne Merkin 53 -- II. For Better and Worse -- I Do. Not.: Why I Won't Marry / Catherine Newman 65 -- Killing the Puritan Within / Kate Christensen 73 -- Houseguest Hell: My Home Is Not Your Home / Chitra Divakaruni 85 -- A Man in the Heart / Hazel McClay 91 -- Why I Hate That My Mother Was Right (Well ... About Most Things): Turning into Elizabeth Taylor / Karen Karbo 101 -- How We Became Strangers / Jill Bialosky 111 -- Erotics 102: Staying Bad. Staying Married / Cynthia Kling 123 -- My Marriage. My Affairs / Hannah Pine 133 -- III. Mommy Maddest -- My Mother's Ring: Caught Between Two Families / Helen Schulman 147 -- Attila the Honey I'm Home / Kristin van Ogtrop 159 -- Myth of Co-Parenting: How It Was Supposed to Be. How It Was / Hope Edelman 171 -- Daddy Dearest: What Happens When He Does More Than His Half? / Laurie Abraham 181 -- Crossing the Line in the Sand: How Mad Can Mother Get? / Elissa Schappell 193 -- Maternal Bitch / Susan Squire 205 -- Origin, Procreation, and Hopes of an Angry Feminist / Natalie Angier 217 -- IV. Look at Me Now -- Married at 46: The Agony and the Ecstasy / Nancy Wartik 227 -- Fat Lady Sings / Natalie Kusz 239 -- Middle Way: Learning to Balance Family and Work / Ellen Gilchrist 249 -- What Independence Has Come to Mean to Me: The Pain of Solitude. The Pleasure of Self-Knowledge / Vivian Gornick 257 -- Perfect Equality of Our Separate Chosen Paths: Becoming a Mother. Or Not / Pam Houston 265.