Who: Betty Londergan, author of “I’m Too Sexy for my Volvo: A Mom’s Guide to Staying Fabulous”
Buy cool bracelets. Wear anything that fits. Take road trips. Words for the slovenly and hedonistic? No, just some of Betty Londergan’s suggestions for surviving pregnancy and early motherhood. Londergan, a former Denver advertising executive who now lives in Atlanta with her daughter Lulu, 14, and her husband, Lawrence Schall, says she chose motherhood as the topic for her first book because she wished she had been better prepared to become a single parent at 37. The book about her journey is alternately funny, honest, sybaritic and superficial, qualities that don’t always earn mothers praise.
Why write about motherhood? I ended up writing the book that I wish I had going into it. I had books on what was physically happening, but both as a single mom and a mom in general, it was really difficult and challenging. It felt lonely and vulnerable and like I didn’t belong.
What do most books about motherhood not tell you? Having a baby throws your whole emotional being out of whack. You’re so caught up in your grand love of the baby, yet giving everything up to it, it’s easy to feel isolated and crazy, and you look like a cow.
Where did the title come from? After all, it’s your husband who owns the Volvo! The book is not about being sexy. It’s about the importance of doing nice, indulgent things (little and big) for yourself, and holding onto your sense of self, lest you become one of those dreaded Mothers Who Deny Themselves Too Much. My husband did buy a Volvo two years ago, just to annoy me, I think. I have a Nissan Pathfinder and a 1967 Buick Skylark convertible that I am just exactly sexy enough for, but only for another year or two, and then I’m going to be bordering on that Gloria Swanson-with-a-chiffon-headwrap Sunset Boulevard thing.
What makes motherhood harder these days than when our moms went through it? You’re smothered in guilt. You’re led to believe that if you do something for yourself, you’re not doing something for the baby. We’re supposed to be raising baby Einsteins. The expectations are so inflated, that makes whole situation that much harder.
What do you think of all the celebrities having babies? The whole idea that you should look like you never had a baby just weeks after giving birth is really twisted and bent and destructive. My advice is to wallow for first three months. Be soft and pudgy and not spend two seconds worrying about it.
How do you avoid getting too much advice about pregnancy, motherhood and child rearing? You have to be empowered with information and then follow your own intuition. It’s like when you make a list of why you should go out with someone. You have 75 reasons why you should not, and two why you should. You then follow your heart.
What’s the best Mother’s Day present? I don’t approve of the whole breakfast-in-bed thing, because you end up having to do the dishes. I like a gift certificate for a massage; something off-premises.
What does your daughter think about the book? Of course she can’t stand anything having to do with the physical side of pregnancy. … But this is a love letter to Lulu.
Finally, what’s that tip about bracelets? You will have about 7,000 pictures taken of your forearms. I look at photo albums and see pictures of me holding the baby and wearing bracelets and think, “This is great. I look like I’m pretty groovy.”
Londergan will sign copies of her book at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Tattered Cover Cherry Creek, 2955 E. First Ave., Denver. Info: toosexyformyvolvo.com
