The Parent Trap

When you have a child, your perceptions change. Shit, for one, is no longer so disgusting. It can even be cute, not to mention a huge relief, if baby delivers a tight, well-formed little package that sits up in the diaper like a present to daddy. Also throw-up: In babyland it’s called spit-up, and it’s hardly horrifying. It’s perfectly fine to let a batch dry on your neck or hair. What also changes is your propensity to enjoy a baby story, especially ones that include table service, like the Afterbirth storytelling events. Begun by Dani Klein Modisett five years ago, Afterbirth regularly stocks the lineup with famous people (comedy writers and producers figure prominently), and she’s taken the show on the road to celebrate the release of her book, Afterbirth: Stories You Won't Read in a Parenting Magazine. Composed of 35 essays, the overall sentiment is nicely unsentimental -- Neil Pollack riffs on daddy rage, and Matthew Weiner offers this fine line: “And when you humiliate another child to make yours feel better, that’s good parenting.” Tonight’s storytelling show, however, is fit for more than those working on a lineage. The sharp lineup is ruled by television producers -- Lew Schneider (Everybody Loves Raymond), Cindy Chupack (Sex and The City), Dan Bucatinsky (Lipstick Jungle), and Joan Rater (Grey's Anatomy) -- along with writers Christie Mellor and Ayelet Waldman, the latter of which caused a ruckus a while back by declaring that she loved Michael Chabon more than her children.
Mon., June 1, 8 p.m., 2009