Jill Murphy, Five Minutes Peace. New York: Penguin Putnam, 1986.
In case you hadn't realized, I'm looking at books about mothers this week, in anticipation of Mother's Day. This is one of my favorites.
Mothers in children's fiction tend towards the angelic--either ever-present and ever-helpful, or actually dead and gone, but much appreciated nonetheless. And when my kids were little, I thought, where are the real mothers?! You know, the ones who get tired and cranky, and are really really mad about the mud on the bathroom floor--those mothers. Me. Well, guess what? Here they are. And they're great company.
"The children were having breakfast. This was not a pleasant sight." Indeed not. Mrs. Large (an elephant in her robe and curlers) looks with dismay at her three children: the baby has turned his bowl of cereal into his head, while his older sister and brother scatter milk and cereal flakes among the musical instruments, cutlery, and books on the floor. Without a word to them, she prepares a lovely breakfast tray for herself, and departs the kitchen for the cleaner and quieter climes of the bathroom. But, "'Where are you going with that tray, Mom?' asked Laura." And caught in the act, Mrs. Large confesses--she wants five minutes peace "from all of you." But some things are not meant to be. The children pursue her into the bathroom, to lay their instruments for her, to read to her, to share their toys, to climb into the tub with her...The loving exuberance of children and the adult desire for a quiet moment alone are a familiar conflict in many homes--this book makes everyone feel good about that charged reality.
What is really extraordinary about this book is that it doesn't upset the children--in fact, they even understand and sympathize with Mrs. Large's desire--which is not always the case with books dealing with maternal frustration. While my daughter didn't much like Janet Wong's Grump, and truly hated Mem Fox's Harriet, You'll Drive Me Wild (so much so that she only let me read it with her once, and never again), even though reading each of them also relieved my feelings enormously, Five Minutes Peace was and has remained a great favorite--funny and true, sad and enlightening, a book to cherish and remember in difficult moments.
