The Middle School Mom's Survival Guide

By: Kristin Hensley, Jen Smedley

From the #IMomSoHard duo, Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley, comes a hilarious and heartfelt guide full of wise words and side-splitting laughs on navigating the wild ride of tween and perimenopause angst—an essential lifeline for every mother re-experiencing those middle school years

Welcome to Kristin Hensley and Jen Smedley’s unfiltered, hilarious guide to the next stage of motherhood. If you thought you were in the trenches when your kids were toddlers, you were just in the kiddie pool. Now, things are getting real. In The Middle School Mom's Survival Guide, the viral sensations behind the #IMOMSOHARD web series are back to tackle the beautiful, messy, and often absurd collision of raising tweens while your own body stages a hormonal rebellion.

Kristin and Jen thought they’d hit their stride. They’d survived the baby years, built a massive online community of millions by sharing their parenting fails in their Spanx, and even wrote a New York Times bestselling book based on those early years. Then perimenopause crashed the party like an uninvited, sweaty uncle—hot flashes, unrelenting chin hair, itchy skin, brain fog, constant irritability, and a dry sense of humor—and their kids turned into hormonal, eye-rolling strangers who speak in a language made of “bruh” and “skibidi toilet.”

Suddenly, life is a minefield of puberty pamphlets, asking questions about sex, and wondering if your vagina has become a “service road in Tucson.” In The Middle School Mom's Survival Guide, Kristin and Jen provide a candid, laugh-out-loud look at this chaotic new chapter with fun one-color design elements like sidebars and listicles throughout. They navigate the joys of marriage counseling; the complexities of reasonable, scheduled sex; and the terror of handing your kid a smartphone. They get real about aging parents, body changes, and the feeling that you’re simultaneously parenting your kids and your parents, with no one left to parent you. With more than 400 million views, sold-out national comedy tours, and a massive, devoted following, Kristin and Jen have proven that the secret to survival is laughter and a good friend (and maybe some wine).

At its core, The Middle School Mom's Survival Guide is about accepting that you’re not going crazy, you’re just going through it. It’s a reminder that everything is going to be okay. This is an honest, propulsive, and hysterically funny read for women who are tired of pretending they have it all together.