Let’s face it. There’s no question that we love our kids. They say and do the cutest things that either melt our hearts or make us want to pull out all our hair. Either way, these little gifts remind us why we do what we do… drink wine.
As our families celebrate us with breakfast in bed, flowers and the traditional Mother’s Day brunch, moms should not forget to celebrate themselves. Shayna Ferm and Tracey Tee of The Pump and Dump Show want to remind moms that we are rockstars who shouldn’t take ourselves or our kids too seriously. They have written a hilarious book, Parentally Incorrect: True Tales by Real Moms about the F**ked-Up Things Their Kids Have Done, to help us laugh at this thing called motherhood. This is a perfect Mother’s Day gift to enjoy with a glass of wine. CEOMOM chatted with Tracey about the inspiration behind the book and why moms should celebrate themselves more often.
Parentally Incorrect: True Tales by Real Moms about the F**ked-Up Things Their Kids Have Done is comprised of cards from your moms night out tour, The Pump and Dump Show? Tell us about the cards. What are they and who writes them?
So The Pump and Dump Show is a live comedy show we have been doing across the nation for 6 years. The show is comprised of original music that Shayna writes and performs and is ultimately a late night talk show for moms. One of our most popular segments is the cards. As the audience comes in we have the moms write down the most messed up things their kids have done. The book is our favorite cards that we have collected over the years. The cards are original and are in the handwriting of the moms.
What inspired you to turn the cards into a book?
Our audience. I can’t think of one show prior to the book coming out that we did not have someone say, “You guys should write a book with all the cards.” You can’t make this stuff up. The stories that moms can write is funnier than any memes we could make up. The cards are such a funny part of the show. When we read them the moms are in the audience. They are completely anonymous however moms will often come up to the stage to get a bottle of wine or a special surprise in appreciation for admitting that their lives aren’t perfect.
So tell us more about The Pump and Dump Show. What inspired you to start the show?
We started about 5 and half years ago. Our kids were tiny. We just kinda felt like moms needed a night out. We were both in those early days where you second guess everything you do as a mom. You read books and the Internet trying to figure out how you are going to keep these kids alive. You stress out over everything. In Shayna’s neighborhood, they have a listserv for their neighbors. We had spent the days reading the posts from overwhelmed moms and we thought, if we can get a bunch of moms together and have a glass of wine and just laugh about everything, it all may not seem like such a big thing. Both being from Colorado, we moved back home to Denver to raise our families in a semi-normal environment. We were looking for something to do in the creative space and The Pump and Dump Show became an idea. When we arrived for our first show there were 75 women waiting for us to go on stage. The next show the bar said they didn’t know where to put everyone. We had grown so much in such a short amount of time. We knew immediately there was a need for this kind of event.
In this book you celebrate being an imperfect mom which we all are. What do you hope us imperfect moms get from reading Parentally Incorrect?
It goes along with our mission. We want to remind moms that they are awesome, we are all doing the best we can and you are not alone. Sometimes, we feel like everyone is dumping their dirty laundry on us, making it so easy for moms to feel isolated. We feel like it’s our job to remind you that you don’t have to be isolated. There’s a tribe out there to support you. Instead of pointing our thumbs down on moms and saying you are not a great parent because you are not doing what I am doing, let’s support and lift each other up and laugh about how messed up parenting can be. Let’s create a band of mothers. We love the idea of getting 500 to 2000 women in a room together, just laughing in the room with actual human beings. We want to remind them that their fears and ideas are the same.
I love that you guys have created this culture around celebrating the insanity of parenthood. You’ve created things like Sad Cake moments and Stump the Breeder trivia questions. What are Sad Cake moments?
Sad cake is a term that Shayna and I use when we talk about our day to day life. We say sad cake to describe a moment or instance that isn’t the end of the world, but is a bummer. My kids puking on me all day and there’s no wine in the house, that’s a sad cake. When there are no samples at Costco and you are with your kids, that’s a sad cake. We thought it would be fun to make actual cake and put the notes on the cake. We tried to make the book a mini Pump and Dump Show. Without the book you can read some stories and play some of the games.
Other than escaping to the bathroom to read Parentally Incorrect, what are some fun things moms can do to maintain sanity?
Learn to laugh about it. That’s probably our biggest message. Learn to accept that you are not perfect. Nobody’s perfect. The sooner you get that in your head and release the notion that you have to look like a Pinterest board, the better off you’ll be. Love to learn your kids for not being perfect, too. Give yourself a little breathing room and realize that nobody is perfect. Everyone makes mistakes. At the end of the day moms are really just trying to do the best they can with what they have been given.
Where can our readers buy your book and get tickets to one of your Pump and Dump shows?
The book is available in Barnes and Noble stores all over the nation and Amazon. You can always find our updated tour schedule on pumpanddump.com. Follow us on FB at thepumpanddump and Instagram at the @pumpanddumpshow.