Mommywood

Mommywood

Tori Spelling's personal memoir sTori Telling showcased the funny, down-to-earth personality that has secured her permanent spot in the hearts of her fans. Now, in Mommywood, Tori shows readers that she has much more to say- and even more stories to share- during this newly unfolding chapter of her life as a mother of two.

With one-year-old son Liam and daughter Stella, born in 2008, Tori talks about her own childhood, her relationship with her mother, questions whether celebrities can be good mothers and discusses her own fears of her children growing up in a fishbwol surrounded by paparazzi (and whether this will scar them for life).

She's also created her own set of guidelines for bringing up her daughter:
1. The Madame Alexander Rule: Getting your daughter a present and telling her she can't touch it (like my mother did every year with those ridiculous Madame Alexander dolls) is worse than not getting her anything.
2. The Bonwit Teller Rule: Along the same lines as above, I'm not going to dress my daughter in clothes, she doesn't want to wear. Especially not anything pastel. I don't know why my mother always dressed me as a doll- especially when she had all my dolls to play with.
3. The Rapunzel Rule: If she wants shoulder-length - or ass-length, or floor-length - hair, she can have it. All I wanted growing up was long hair and my mother made me have the same stupid bob for 12 years. (Are you picking up any sort of theme to these guidelines? Not that I'm bitter. Stupid bob.)
4. The Nanny Rule: Dean or I will always be there at night when she's sick or scared, instead of relying on a nanny to sleep by her side. I know that seems like an obvious one, but I just had to say it.
5. The Ed McMahon Rule: I'll let her invite whomever she wants to her wedding(s), and I won't invite celebrities I barely know just because they happened to be on the initiation list of someone I want to impress.
6. The I-Paid-for-This-Wedding-and-All-of-Your-Furniture Rule: Gifts I give to my daughter will never come with strings attached. Or ropes. Or intricate pulley systems that require the recipient to dance the cha-cha while wearing lederhosen.
7. The Lonley Rich Kid Rule: I'll let her go over to friends' for sleepovers. Even if I turn out to have as many crazy fears and paranoias as my father did (and I'm well on my way), I won't indulge them. I'll let her do what other kids do.
8. The You-Must-Pay-Rent Rule: If I ever buy a residence for her (as my mother did for me), I won't make her pay rent; at the very least, I won't raise said rent every year by having my money manager send my own daughter a notification by email. And to answer your question, yes, that happened.
9. The Face-to-Face Rule: You know what? Let's give this its own place: I'll never communicate with my daughter through a money manager.
10. The No-Such-Thing-as-a-Coincidence Rule: I'll never show up at her wedding rehearsal dinner dressed like her older twin.

11. The Parental Sponsorship Rule: I won't offer to host a post-wedding brunch, or any other party for that matter, and pull out funding the week before.
12. I'm looking at Rule 7: Okay, Rule 12, is that if I hear that there are going to be boys at this sleepover, then forget it. She's staying home. And I'm disappointed that she didn't tell me about the boys. Wow, I'm already worries about this.
13. The Beanie Baby Rule: I won't pretend to bond while subconsciously competing with my daughter over who has the better Beanie Baby collection (or whatever worthless, short-lived fad it'll be in the future.)
14. The Champagne BMW Rule: I don't know if/when I'll buy her a car, but I'm not my mom: if she wants the cheaper Volkswagen instead of the luxury car that I think complements her skin, she can have it. I'll use the savings to hire a private investigator to find out who the hell that boy was at the sleepover.
15. The sTORI telling Rule: If my daughter ever writes a tell-all book about me, I promise to take it as constructive criticism to get us into therapy together, and not to retaliate by writing my own book.
16. The Rule That Should Be True For All Mothers: I'll love my daughter unconditionally, no matter who she is, what she does, or how difficult our relationship is.

Tori SpellingMommywood
Simon and Schuster Australia
Author: Tori Spelling
ISBN: 9781416599104
Price: $32.99