A is for Anxiety, Alcohol and awful Activities. B is for Bedtime, Baking and Boredom. C is for Childcare and Cooking With Your Coat on. N is for Not Swearing (bloody frustrating) and S is for Soft Play Places, Sniffing Babies' Arses (to see if they've filled their nappies - are there not easier ways of finding out?) and Sex (see also L, for lack thereof).

Can I Give them Back Now? puts two fingers up to the pervasive notion that parenthood is an eternally rewarding experience. Taking a wry, down-to-earth and humorous look at life with young children, it taps into the very normal, but hard-to-admit ambivalence that so many parents feel about raising kids.

Realistic, often dark and occasionally shocking, Joanna Simmons and Jay Curtis' brilliantly alternative A-Z of parenting is essential reading for all mums and dads who really, really love their kids, but...