Hi, I'm Zibi Owens, and you're listening to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books. If you like what you hear,

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Bethany Seltman is the author of Strange Situation, a mother's journey into the science of attachment.

She's also an award-winning editor and researcher. Her work can be seen in magazines like The New Yorker, New York Magazine, Atlantic Monthly, parents, and many others.

Bethany is a graduate of Antioch College, where she was one of the architects of the nation's first affirmative consent policy,

and went on to receive her MFA in poetry from Brooklyn College, where she studied with Alan Ginsberg.

A longtime Zen student, Bethany is devoted to the fine art and game-changing effects of paying attention. She lives in a small town in the Catskills with her family. Welcome, Bethany. Thanks so much for coming on my show. Thanks for having me. You were so nice to send me not only your book, but an awesome baseball cap with strange situation on it, which I know now. This is the second time we've done a virtual talk and I'm not wearing it, but I promise you I have been wearing it this summer and it's been reminding me of you all the time.

Awesome. I love that. So for listeners who have not read or who don't know much about strange

situation, your book, A Mother's Journey into the Science of Attachment, can you give a little

synopsis of what it's about? Sure. The book is a

memoir woven in with the science of attachment. When my daughter, Azealia, was born. She's 14 years

old now. I was confronted with some difficult feelings. I think like many of us thought that

motherhood would wash over me like a blanket or,

you know, some kind of comforting, you know, soothing experience that would wipe away the edgier

aspects of my personality. And lo and behold, that did not happen. In fact, kind of the opposite

occurred where I was stressed out, you know, worried about myself

in relationship to this new motherhood business and ultimately worried about her because I didn't

really, I didn't have problems bonding with her, so to speak.

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