Having just wrapped up a tour for her first book, The Mommy Shorts Guide to Remarkably Average Parenting, Ilana Wiles is constantly connecting with her readers and audience to share experiences of being an average parent.
Wiles started her blog, Mommy Shorts, in 2010, when her daughter was just 9 months old. After getting feedback from her readers about how much her blog has helped them, Wiles is hoping that with her new book, she can reach to a larger audience and make people feel a little bit better about the parenting job they are doing.
“I think almost everybody is an average parent,” says Wiles, a mother of two lovely girls, Harlow, 3, and Mazzy, 6. “To me, average parenting is accepting that there is no such thing as perfect parenting. As soon as you accept that, the better parent you will be!”
Wiles refers to herself as average parent, and recalls an incident with her daughter at home, where Wiles thought her daughter had pooped on the floor. After some horrifying moments, Wiles found out the ugly turd to be a detached head of a Monchichi doll. And at that moment, Wiles realized that sometimes as a parent, you might be wrong and your kids might be right.
“I think perfect parenting is actually kind of aspirational,” says Wiles. “Because once you realize that you are not going to get everything right and give permission to yourself to fail a little bit, you relax a little bit, it’s better for you and it’s better for your kids.”
The book shares all the struggles that every parent goes through but in an entertaining and humorous way. Wiles thinks that, for parents, it is nice to know that you are going to make mistakes and there are going to be parenting fails. It happens to everybody, but it doesn’t mean you are a bad parent. Especially for new moms and dads, when you don’t know what you are getting into, Wiles hopes the book can help and make them feel better about their parenting and help them to not be too hard on themselves.
“There are tons of photos and quotes from a lot of people who read and follow my blog because, while it’s mostly my story, it’s really everybody’s story.” Wiles says. She understands how universal everybody’s struggles are through people’s comments and submission on her blog and Instagram account. She thinks that all parents should read the book because they can relate to almost everything she is talking about in the book and that it is going to make the parents laugh.
“I want to give that gift to everybody else,” Wiles says. “I think it is going to make them feel better about parenthood, and make them feel like we are all sort of a part of a community that’s dealing with the same stuff.”
The Mommy Shorts Guide to Remarkably Average Parenting is available now.
