How Tough Could It Be?: The Trials and Errors of a Sportswriter Turned Stay-At-Home Dad

By Austin Murphy

Book Overview

"How does a man go from interviewing superstar athletes to planning the elementary school talent show? Or more specifically, how does he survive it? There is both insight and laughter in Murphy's answer, making this book entertaining for both fathers and mothers alike." -"BookPage" After nineteen years as a writer for "Sports Illustrated," Austin Murphy should have had it made. Instead, he'd had it with life as an absentee husband and father. So he decided to trade it in for a new life: that of his wife, Laura. Alas, the man charged with preparing three nutritious meals a day had never mastered his own outdoor grill. And that was just the beginning. Sublimely ignorant of everything from grocery shopping to housecleaning to the need to trim his children's nails more than, say, semiannually, Murphy embarks on his journey like Shackleton taking on the Southern Ocean: spectacularly ill-equipped to survive it. Lively, poignant, yet laugh-out-loud funny, "How Tough Could It Be?" is a heartwarming account of one man's decision to reorder his life around things that really matter, and his adventures (and misadventures) along the way.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0805078460
• ISBN13: 9780805078466
• Release Date: January 1
• Publisher: Holt & Company, Henry
• Length: 237 Pages
• Weight: 0.76 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.8" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

This book improved my marriage!

I LOVED this book and have given it to many as a baby gift or just because gift. It really helped me see that I was over achieving in the household and my husband was underachieving. After we both read this book, we had a heart to heart that was much lighter and productive than the vent session I'd rehearsed for weeks prior. It really helped me lighten up and helped my husband see he needed to step up to the plate. Highly recommend.

laugh out loud funny

Beautifully written and laugh out loud funny at the same time. I'm going to get this book for friends and family. (No, I'm not being paid by the author, I'm not related to him, and, in fact, I don't know him at all - except from the book)

Laughed so hard I damn near cried

This is one of those books that you tell all your friends about. Two things stand out for me: the absolutely manic laughter it elicited and the benefit it gave me.Murphy's writing style perfectly juxtaposes bawdy humor with an obvious intelligence; and when in doubt, he goes for the laugh. I laughed so hard at this thing that a couple of times it gave me an asthma attack. I think it helps if you have kids, and you recognize how ugly parenting can get.But there is also a deeper benefit. Like the author, I finished the book with a better "vision," a clearer sense of just how hard, how maddening, and how unending the daily life of a woman is. I think I'm a better husband having read it.

much funnier than I expected

This sounded pretty predictable and I expected sitcom humor, maybe a few laughs but familiar ones. But Murphy (whose work you may know from SI) is much better than that. He's wry without being too sarcastic, and he's never mean-spirited. He's a likeable narrator and this is a surprisingly sharp and funny book. A great father's day gift.

Loved it.

This was very gratifying to read. I'm a SAHM with 3 young children who ran out and bought the book after reading the funny excerpt in People Magazine. So insightful and entertaining. I haven't laughed that hard in quite some time.