Business & Tech

Don't Laugh: Moms Really Do Want to Pee Alone

Suzanne Fleet, an East Atlanta mom and blogger on parenting issues, is one of 36 mothers who contributed essays to the newly released book, "I Just Want to Pee Alone."

EAST ATLANTA — As any mom will tell you, motherhood has its joys and its moments where it has you wishing you could run outside and just scream at the top of your lungs.

Screaming isn't always practical, of course, so finding other outlets is the preferred option.

Suzanne Fleet, an East Atlanta mother of two, found that outlet through Toulouse & Tonic, a parenting blog with a humorous take that she launched in 2010.

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Fleet also is a contributing writer to the newly published parenting anthology, I Just Want to Pee Alone, which features insights from 36 blogger moms from across the country.

The book, which is currently No. 4 on iTunes' humor list, delves in to tales of motherhood through a series of essays from the moms.

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“I'm so excited to have my life-long dream of being published come true together with a group of such talented and funny women," Fleet said. "We have different stories to tell but what we all have in common is that we do it with humor.”

Fleet's essay is about being a mom in a household of boys.

She recently shared with East Atlanta Patch her perspective on the experience:

Q. How did you become involved in the project?

A. Jen, of the popular blog, People I Want to Punch in the Throat, invited me to submit a story to her. She'd recently self-published a very successful holiday book of her own stories and wanted to do an anthology of funny stories for moms next. Since I've dreamed of being published since I was three, I practically jumped through the computer into her lap.

Q. How did you pick/select the specific subject you submitted?

A. My process is horribly unorganized. Instead of any kind of actual planning, I kind of wait for inspiration to strike (i.e. put things off). As my deadline approached and my stress level increased, the title of my story, "A Stranger in the Land of Twigs and Berries," finally popped into my head and I knew my subject matter had finally chosen me. My story is about the funny and sweet aspects of being a boy-mom when all you know is girl stuff. And yes, it's those "twigs and berries" I'm talking about.

Q. What has the experience been like?

A. My expectations were low, probably because I had nothing to which to compare it. It's my first book. I honestly would've been happy even if it hadn't sold that well because no one would've been able to ever take that physical book from me, with my story and my name in it. But finding it selling so well has been a thrill. To see this book listed as No. 1 in several categories on Amazon and No. 1 on iTunes has blown me away. I never dreamed I'd be part of a book that knocked Tina Fey from the No. 1 spot. Sooo, yeah. I'm mildly excited.

Q.  You already have an established blog, Toulouse and Tonic. What led you to launch it in the first place?

A. When I got married, my husband and I moved away from our homes on the Gulf Coast to Nashville, Tenn. for him to attend law school. While we were there, we had our first son, Asher, and I found myself incredibly stressed and so isolated. I had no friends nor family there to turn to and I was especially peeved at all the moms I saw out and about who seemed to push forward this "perfect" picture of motherhood that just makes us all feel even more inadequate when we're giving everything we can to this demanding, 24-hour a day job. Oftentimes I felt like I was just bad at it. But the secret is, it's hard for everyone. Everyone messes up. And that's okay. So I decided that secret shouldn't be a secret anymore. I wanted to reach out to other moms who may be feeling the way I was and let them know, you're okay. You're doing a good job and here's some stuff to make you laugh at the whole thing. My blog is also a creative outlet for me since I was a career woman for a long time before I became a SAHM [Stay-at-home-mom] and it was hard for me to lose that aspect of myself, even though I did want to stay home with my kids. This works because I can do both.

Q. What's the meaning behind the name?

A. Toulouse is the name of my sassy alter ego, bestowed on me by friends many years ago. Think of Toulouse as the "Sasha Fierce" of the mommy blogging world, except she wears stretched-out t-shirts with yesterday's mashed bananas on them and a ponytail and she sings rap songs into a baby bottle in her kitchen to an audience of two.

Q. What's the single-most important thing a new mom — or dad, for that matter — needs to know about parenting that no one will tell them?

A. There's no perfect way to do the job of raising kids. You're gonna mess up a lot but regardless of what you think you see in other parents, they're messing up too. I promise. Just make sure your kids know they're loved. Otherwise, do the best you can at any given moment. And find the humor in all of it. Also, don't listen to me because I have no idea what I'm talking about.


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