Stuff I Forgot to Tell My Daughter

A warm and witty memoir of motherhood (or what you meant to say but were too busy parenting …) Adapted from the author’s sell out solo standup show, this is a candid and very funny account of being the mother of a daughter, of how we are sometimes so busy parenting we forget how to be a person, and why learning how to store ginger is as important as knowing the history of feminism.

Says Michele, “When I speak at school and university graduations, I tell other people’s kids all kinds of important things about work and life and relationships. And then I’d go home and tell my daughter how to hold her fork properly. So I started making a list. A list of all the things I had forgotten to tell my daughter. Because often we’re so busy telling our kids to sit up straight and do their homework we forget to talk to them about the Big Things – social activism, finding your tribe, the power of youth. And also the Small Things like not touching your eye when you’ve just sprinkled something with cayenne pepper. That list of stuff I forgot to tell my daughter became a one-hour solo comedy show at the NZ International Comedy Festival in 2013. Wisdom wrapped up in jokes. And then the list kept getting longer. So now it wants to be a book.”