I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids
by Jen Kirkman
Jen Kirkman will not be held back. Her art springs from spontaneity, and any constraint placed on that absolute creative freedom would serve only to artificially encapsulate the swirling comedy chaos of Jen’s frenetic brain. Bearing this in mind, it would be unreasonable to expect her to uphold the arbitrary societal convention of procreation. Not only would motherhood stifle her imagination, it would seriously eat into her time previously allotted to trying on “fun rings” and practicing karaoke. Despite her self-proclaimed unfitness for the whole parenting ordeal, people – friends, coworkers, and total strangers – routinely impress upon her the alleged joys of child-raising. I Can Barely Take Care of Myself: Tales from a Happy Life Without Kids is her response those who would let such unsolicited advice fall out of their jealous, uninformed mouths. Quite by accident, Jen Kirkman has spearheaded the Child-free By Choice movement, and her new memoir has become its mission statement.
As a comedy icon, Jen Kirkman is snugly ensconced in the public consciousness, having released two absurdly touching, stream-of-consciousness stand-up manifestos with Self Help in 2007 and her uproarious sophomore triumph Hail to the Freaks in 2011. She writes for Chelsea Lately and After Lately on the E Network, appearing as a comedian/panelist on both, and she has been featured in Comedy Central’s educational series Drunk History.
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On Saturday, Steven, Arian, Katie and Robyn sold books at Jen Kirkman’s stand-up event at The North Door. It was an evening of “pure, explosive glee” (Steven). Most of us laughed so hard that we cried. And, we sat Jen down to get some SIGNED COPIES of her new book I Can Barely Take Care of Myself that are available on our shelves and online (when ordering mention that you want a “signed copy” in the comments section). We all agree, Jen Kirkman is super sweet and hilarious. She even tweeted a picture of all us extending her gratitude to BookPeople for making her event so awesome! Aw, Jen, thank you!
BookPeople 
At last it’s cool to say “I have no children, want no children, and I’m happy!”
Justine – childless, apart from the dogs, of course 😉
She sounds like she could be my new hero!
Somebody GETS it! With all the “mommy bloggers” and “mommy movements,” we need someone to represent those of use who are childless-by-choice.
(I respect all mothers; all of my friends are mommies and I love them all, sometimes because of it! But I like to see the other side getting some attention, too.)