DIY Mom

I’ll admit: I side-eyed the title *DIY Mom* at first, expecting either a smug manifesto or a weepy redemption arc. Instead, Lehmann-Haupt delivers something rarer—a memoir that’s *useful* in its honesty. Her account of choosing single motherhood at 38 isn’t about overcoming adversity; it’s about staring down the mundane horrors of doing it alone, from the indignity of fertility clinic paperwork to the moment her toddler asks, *“Where’s my daddy?”* and she has to improvise an answer. The writing is so specific it stings: her description of Googling *“single mom burnout”* at 3 a.m., or the way her friends’ coupled lives start to feel like a parallel universe. Emily Cauldwell’s performance sells it. She nails the author’s mix of wit and exhaustion, especially in passages where Lehmann-Haupt’s bravado cracks—like when she admits to crying in the Target parking lot after a particularly brutal day. The production is clean, though I wished for slightly more dynamic range in Cauldwell’s delivery during the funnier bits (her deadpan *“I paid $12,000 for a turkey baster experience”* could’ve used a beat more punch). At just over an hour, it’s the rare audiobook that respects your time, but the abrupt ending left me wanting a postscript: *How’s she doing now?* Still, for anyone weighing non-traditional parenthood—or just fascinated by women who refuse to wait for permission—this is a bracing, no-BS listen.