You have a newborn. You’re still in your bathrobe and slippers at four o’clock in the afternoon, and spit-up graces your shoulder. There are dishes in the sink, unopened mail piled up on the kitchen table, untouched library books in a stack on the coffee table. You haven’t thought about making dinner; you can’t remember what you ate for lunch. What did you do all day?

What Mothers Do: Especially When it Looks Like Nothing tackles the question head-on, showing how all those mothering tasks that don’t seem to add up to much are crucial for both baby’s and mom’s development in their new relationship.

It’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking read, so I wouldn’t hand it to a bleary-eyed, sleep-deprived mom of a brand new baby. But a first-time mom who’s regained her capacity to read? Or a studious, read-ahead-type mom-to-be? I’d press this book on them in a heartbeat.

While the author is careful not to tell readers how to mother, she is justifying certain mothering techniques and not others; if you don’t choose to comfort your baby on demand, for example, or to be instantly interruptible when your baby wakes up from naptime, you may come away feeling less than supported by this explanation of how mothering works. This is my mothering style, though, so I hung on her every word.

I was especially interested in the section on language; why do we have words for bad parenting, but not good? For example: a parent can protect their child too little (neglect) or too much (overprotective), but what’s the word for protecting your child the right amount? Anybody want to coin new phrases?

For more on What Mothers Do, visit MotherTalk.

Full disclosure: I received a free review copy of this book, as well as a small honorarium from MotherTalk for participating in this blog book tour.