Parenting is Dirty Business

Laugh Till You Cry About Blue Balls:
Parenting is Dirty Business

Sleepless nights, dirty diapers, the fear of missing out on the best preschool in town. No doubt about it, being a parent is tough.

Fortunately, there are many fringe benefits, and author Sunshine Sweet has conveniently collected some of them in Blue Balls: Parenting is Dirty Business.

Even though we try to watch what we say when little ears are present, we sometimes slip up. Colloquialisms like “blue balls,” innocent phrases like “I want a boy toy” at the fast food franchise, or “your package is huge” at the post office are just waiting to sneak into our conversations with kids.

When the adults on hand laugh uproariously, the children look at us like we’ve lost our minds, and a little moment of grace in the pressure cooker of parenthood is achieved.

Collected by Sunshine Sweet and delightfully illustrated by Emmi Ojala, Blue Balls: Parenting is Dirty Business allows us to enjoy a few chuckles while we tackle the serious work of raising kids in the 21st century.

Blue Balls: Parenting is Dirty Business
Available online everywhere in November 2014
ISBN-13: 978-0-9907852-0-0 (Print)
ISBN-13: 978-0-9907852-1-7 (E-Book)

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Getting to know Sunshine Sweet

Q. Are you a parent yourself?  

A.Yes, I have three rowdy, yet wonderful kids: two boys and a girl, eight and under.

Q. What made you decide to write a book?

A. Because raising kids can be chaotic. Of course there are beautiful moments when your child smiles at you the first time or says “I love you.” But then you also find yourself exacerbated and wanting to pull your hair out too – everyone crying all at once, wailing that so-and-so hit them or they’ve colored the walls in the bedroom with marker during time-out (how did a marker even end up in their room), or they snuck some candy when you were not looking but the evidence is all over their face. Personally, I find humor to be the best stress reliever and it often helps make tough situations less difficult.

Q. Where do you hear all these funny things?

A. It started out with me writing phrases down that I caught myself saying to my own kids. Once I decided this would make for a great book I talked to friends and they began sending me texts and emails with their own ideas. If I’m not in the right mindset, receiving that random text can be quite shocking.

Q. What’s your favorite funny saying?

A. I’ve got several but “Lick from the bottom up” is one of my favorites – My sister sent it to me and it is SO innocent. It was a hot, summer day in the south and she’d just explained to her three-year old the best way to eat the quickly melting ice cream.

Grab your balls…