Family Matters
Reviewed By Janet Mawdesley November 13, 2014
Author Pat McDermott
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ISBN: 9781760111762
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
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Website: http://www.allenandunwin.com
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This is a fabulous collection of stories told over many years, all laced with laughter, fun, warmth, tears and joy from Pat McDermott featuring her family, along with an assortment of friends and neighbours, without whom many of the readers of the iconic Australian Woman’s Weekly would be so much poorer.
Pats family came into print when she was offered column space in the Weekly several generations ago. Each member came into our lives with their nicknames, their antics from toilet training to enfant terrible and lots more in between, rapidly becoming one of the ‘must not miss’ sections to be eagerly looked forward to each edition. Without Pat and her family gracing the pages we would have missed out on so much fun.
Over the past thirty something years her children have grown up from toilet training to parenthood and so now we meet the next generation of McDermott’s to grace the pages.
The underlying quality to all this sharing of family life gave hope to many young parents struggling with their ‘enfant terrible’, teething and life in general. It supported when feeling down and reassured that we were not the only ones going through the horror stretch that does often come with raising children.
Each of the stories selected from the many columns written, take older readers down memory lane and give hope and enlightenment to the younger generation coming to grips with children and their little challenges. The pieces do show that there is sanity of some sort at the end of the tunnel with light, laughter and enjoyment to be had along the way.
A beautiful, tongue in cheek anecdote is ‘Christmas mail’, replying to Christmas greetings and gifts received, tracking the family down at Christmas as they have grown older, gone skiing, got married, honeymooning at Christmas and the intrepid RR or Rough Red (Rowan), as he is known, just simply doing his thing….
‘Advice to a young woman leaving home’, should be a must read as the fourteen points so listed are absolutely classic and as so very many have found, leaving home is often not all it’s cracked up to be. Point number 14, ‘Remember, wherever you are you can always come home.’ This kind of sums it all up, as do the other 13 points.
Whatever bits you choose to read, or however you choose to wander through this small selection of life at the McDermott’s, you will enjoy a good laugh, feel much better about life in general and realise that you are not alone in the trials and tribulations of bringing up a family, lumps, bumps, laughter and all.