Available Everywhere: April 14, 2026
An unflinchingly
honest and disarmingly funny memoir from an exhausted mom who broke under the pressure to do it all and found herself in the rubble.
Honest Motherhood is a rallying cry for moms to let go of perfection, choose themselves, and give their kids what they need most—a mother who is present and whole.
Libby Ward has written the motherhood manifesto we didn’t know we needed. She is here to remind you that you’re not broken—you’re just a mom doing her best in a world that forgot to send the manual.
Read Honest Motherhood. Highlight it. Shove it into the hands of every mom you know.
early praise
Jen Hatmaker
New York Times bestselling author and host of the For the Love Podcast
Honest Motherhood more than lives up to its title, presenting an unvarnished story of mothering in a culture not fashioned to support women and families in their sacred role of rearing children.
Gabor Maté M.D.
Internationally bestselling author, The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture
Laced with uproarious humor and leavened with deep insight, Honest Motherhood will entertain, inform, and inspire many on their own journey of healing and self-discovery.
early praise
This book will awaken mothers to their truth and transform how they parent forever. With compassion and clarity,
Dr. Shefali
Clinical Psychologist and NYT bestselling author
Honest Motherhood reveals that the path to becoming a more present parent begins with becoming a more whole woman.
early praise
Libby is shifting the cultural narrative in a way that will echo for generations.
Eve Rodsky
New York Times Bestselling Author of Fairplay
Honest Motherhood is a powerful blend of truth-telling and rebellion—a rallying cry for women to stop carrying what was never theirs to hold.
early praise
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Listen to (or read) a bonus discussion answering my communities burning questions about the book content, and the process of writing and publishing this book.
Download the new and improved guided journal prompts— plus a few add ons designed to support the practice, and make journaling feel manageable, and worth your precious time.
Read or listen to me read to you the entire first chapter of Honest Motherhood. Warning: you might find yourself yelling "YES EXACTLY", and cry-laughing about my problems.
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Wants to be a good mom and a whole human at the same time.
Cares about validating her children's emotions unless they involve screaming in her face for literally keeping them alive.
Sometimes wants to throttle her partner for having useless nipples, not being the default parent and still having a life.
Couldn't wait to be a mom and now can't wait to be able to close the bathroom door while she changes her tampon.
Decided to raise good humans by being a good human but then actually became a real life parent.
Fantasizes about being admitted to the hospital just to get a break.
Loves her kids in the marrow of her bones and needs them to stop talking for 4 minutes straight.
Is tired of the world's relentless expectations and the invisible work nobody sees.
Desperately wants a village but also doesn't know how to sign up for one or what people are even talking about.
Promised herself she would break the cycle and thinks she might be failing miserably.
Honest Motherhood
When Libby Ward became a mother at twenty-six, she thought she was prepared. Determined to give her kids a childhood different from her own, she clung to the world’s “shoulds” like her children’s future depended on it. That was her first mistake.
In Honest Motherhood, Libby candidly shares her journey of unlearning the myth of the ideal mother. She dives headfirst into the experiences many mothers have but few feel safe enough to say out loud—the lack of support, the guilt, the invisibility, the cycles they’re breaking, and the fantasies about a hospital stay just to get a flippin’ break. Libby untangles her social conditioning from learned trauma responses and discovers that letting go of unrealistic standards, asking for help, and prioritizing herself aren’t failures—they’re necessities.
A couple years later, with a toddler around her ankle, a needy baby in her arms, and silent rage coursing through her veins, Libby began to unravel. Struggling to manage the unrelenting and often unspoken expectations of mothering, she did what any overfunctioning people-pleaser would do—she wallowed in shame. Then, she tried harder. Self-care! Boundaries! Sleep when the baby sleeps! But as Libby’s body and mind began to push back, Libby wondered: Why, with so much information and advice at our fingertips, is motherhood still so impossibly hard?
Equal parts memoir and manifesto, flush with refreshing takeaways, Honest Motherhood is a rallying cry for moms to let go of perfection, choose themselves, and give their kids what they need most—a mother who is present and whole.
a summary
Honest Motherhood
