The Mommy Brain Audiobook By Katherine Ellison cover art

The Mommy Brain

How Motherhood Makes Us Smarter

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The Mommy Brain

By: Katherine Ellison
Narrated by: Jane Jacobs
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About this listen

In The Mommy Brain, Katherine Ellison reveals the ways that women get smarter after having kids. Motherhood makes women more perceptive, efficient, resilient, motivated, and emotionally intelligent - all of which adds up to tremendous mental enrichment and effectiveness.

©2006 Katherine Ellison (P)2013 Audible, Inc. Motherhood Parenting & Families Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships
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The author gives so many great and interesting scientific studies proving motherhood improves brains. She does it in a way that non-scientists like me, can understand:) She throws in a lot of humor to make it even more enjoyable. It’s sad that 17 years after it was published,mothers still aren’t given enough support in our American culture,even when there isn’t a pandemic,and we are trying to balance more and more which harms all of us.

Excellent science showing how motherhood improves our brains!

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It took me a while to get into the book because of the narrator's monotoneish voice but I'm glad I gave this book a chance. Super informative.

Great book, decent performance

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I’ll admit, I’ve resorted to the excuse “mommy brain” on more than one occasion.

But Pulitzer Prize winner Katherine Ellison asks, “What if raising children is mentally enriching for mothers and fathers?”

With copious research, top scientist interviews, and parents' hardcore stories, Ellison lays out a case that our brains go through an elastic growth period as we bear and rear children.

“Aging makes us cling ever more fiercely to our mental ruts. But for most of us, our unique bond with our children yanks us out of them.”

Ellison argues that the fatigue and forgetfulness associated with parenting derive from overwork and sleeplessness, and should be addressed by society—with more generous childcare benefits, for instance. We want and need to take advantage of our new brain enhancement!

A lot of parents feel like they’re losing their marbles! They're not crazy, and they are actually accessing new intelligence. "Mommy Brain" articulates that insight.

Take That! Misogynists

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There are some useful nuggets in this book and portions that are thought-provoking. However, the entire book is disorganized and at times rambles on about unrelated topics like when the author goes into a brief history of women in US politics and at a couple points rants about McDonalds. I think this is a fascinating topic yet I was hoping to learn more about the science and research underlying current views on mommy brains.

Disorganized but has potential

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