Erma Bombeck has been writing about

mothers and motherhood for twenty

years. In this book Erma celebrates

Motherhood--the second oldest pro-

fession, and the biggest on-the-job

training program ever.

She views with warmth, humor,

insight, and compassion the variety of

roles mothers play, and rescues mother-

hood from the unreal realm of cliche,

myth, and make-believe. Erma tells of

the joys and pangs, the fulfillment and

the frustration, the poignancy and the

pathos of being a mother. In Motherhood:

The Second Oldest Profess/on, Erma reaches

new levels of creativity and originality

with a cast of characters readers will

readily recognize: from the Supermom

who writes Christmas newsletters that

rhyme to the mother who eats her chil-

dren s Halloween candy and tells them

the ants got it, from the Mom who

alphabetizes her spices and can change

the toilet tissue spindle without drop-

ping the spring, to the mother who puts

her kids outside,to play when the chill

factor is 40 below.