PARK SLOPE — Forget breakfast in bed and a bouquet: some moms will celebrate Mother's Day this year by sharing wine-fueled true confessions about the maternal experience.
The annual "Edgy Moms" reading at Park Slope's Old Stone House on Thursday night will feature writers regaling the audience with "funny, poignant, shocking" and "very, very frank" stories about motherhood, organizer Louise Crawford said.
How shocking and frank? Try a story about masturbating while breastfeeding.
That's a bold tale one multi-tasking mom shared a couple of years ago.
"That was an interesting year," Crawford recalled. "It took the edgy even edgier."
Crawford hatched the reading event seven years ago during the early days of mommy blogging, when the Internet was first awash in diaper-by-diaper coverage of the domestic dramas unfolding in motherhood-obsessed neighborhoods like Park Slope.
The reading celebrates "the non-sanctimonious, non-perfect, non-Martha Stewart side of motherhood, without reaching into the full-on bad mother part of the mom world," Crawford said.
Last year a mom read a story called, "He's Just Not That Into Me" about her sullen teenage son.
Featured writers have included Amy Sohn, who went on to write the locally-inspired novels "Prospect Park West" and the recent "Motherland." This year's line-up includes Karen Ritter, author of the novel "Living with Men," poet Nicole Callihan, and Sophia Romero, author of "Always Hiding."
Wine and snacks will be served, and sex toy purveyor Babeland is sponsoring the event, so bedroom-appropriate gift bags will be available.
What is an edgy mom? Crawford pounded out a manifesto about the species that she'll recite at Thursday night's reading. Traits include a propensity for feeding children reheated pizza for breakfast and taking baths when she should be making dinner, Crawford explained.
They also possess a fierce love of their children and will "kill anyone" who harms them, she said.
An edgy mom "never remembers to bring Cheerios in a little Tupperware container to the playground," Crawford said, but "feels victorious when she does." She secretly dreams of retreating solo to Block Island, too, "with a computer and a view of the sea," Crawford added.
The Edgy Moms reading is scheduled for Thursday at 8 p.m. at The Old Stone House, 336 Third St. A $5 donation is suggested and covers a free gift bag from Babeland plus wine and snacks.
