Time of My Life

Two books in less than a month, I am impressing myself at this point. I just finished reading Time of My Life and I will give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The jist: Jillian is a suburban mother who feels trapped in stay-at-home mom hell. She sees her marriage falling into decay and constantly doubts her abilities as a mother. Then one day she wishes her self back to a pivotal moment in her life and has the chance to undo some of her choices. As she takes her life on a different course she learns more about herself and starts taking some of the blame for the way things turned out. She also realizes that she is responsible for making herself happy, not just those around her. Spoiler: Even though it is pretty predictable, in the end, she chooses her old life, but has learned enough about herself to not compromise what she needs to be fulfilled and have it all.

What I liked about this book is that is validated some feelings that all moms must have at some point: that they can't give enough of themselves and that their husbands/children just take too much (I am sure that my mom never thought that though). I even feel weird typing that I should be concerned about my own happiness. In the book Jillian went from focusing too much on making her husband happy and saying things that she thought he wanted to hear to trying to change herself to make an old relationship work. The point being that those who love us really will be happier if we are honest about who we are and our feelings.

Another underlying message: People with perfectly clean and decorated houses aren't as happy as those with socks on the floor! I am glad that I didn't need to read a book to learn this lesson!