Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World

Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World - Paperback

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Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World
  • Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World
Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World - Paperback

Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World - Paperback

by Jessica Slice
$18.95
$18.95

Book Overview

by Jessica Slice (Author)

"Beautiful and razor-sharp...cannot recommend highly enough."
--Ann Helen Petersen, Culture Study

"Cuts boldly and beautifully through that silence, inviting readers to imagine what our world might look like if we met every family where they are."
--Vogue

"A beautiful, transformative book about being a parent in a world that rejects frailty and weakness."--Rachel Aviv, staff writer at the New Yorker

A paradigm shifting look at the landscape of disabled parenting--the joys, stigma, and discrimination--and how disability culture holds the key to transforming the way we all raise our kids

In Unfit Parent, Slice debunks the exclusionary myths that deem disabled people "unfit" to care for their children, instead showing how disabled parents and disability culture provide valuable lessons for rejecting societal rules that encourage perfectionism and lead to isolation.

Combining her personal experiences with interviews, research-backed evidence, and disability studies, Slice shares insight into what the landscape is like for disabled parents--one that is scattered with unpredictable obstacles and inaccessible barriers, including:
  • How do you find adaptive baby equipment?
  • How do two disabled parents creatively keep their children safe?
  • How do you get reproductive care when the medical system assumes you aren't able to have kids?
  • What is it like to be in public knowing that someone might call child protective services simply because a parent is disabled?

In overcoming these challenges, she describes how disabled parents are oftentimes more prepared to adapt to the demanding nature of parenthood, including the uncertainty of losing control over bodily autonomy.

Uplifting and powerful, Unfit Parent illuminates how disabled bodies and minds give us the hopeful perspectives and solutions we need for transforming a societal system that has left parents exhausted, stuck, and alone.

Author Biography

Jessica Slice is a disabled mother, author, and essayist whose work has appeared in The New York Times's Modern Love column, in Alice Wong's bestselling Disability Visibility, The Washington Post, Glamour, and Cosmopolitan, among others. She is co-author, with Caroline Cupp, of Dateable: Swiping Right, Hooking Up, and Settling Down While Chronically Ill and Disabled and This is How We Play: A Celebration of Disability and Adaptation. Follow her online at jessicaslice.com.

Number of Pages: 216
Dimensions: 0.72 x 8.67 x 5.6 IN
Publication Date: April 07, 2026
ISBN9780807022764
Author Jessica Slice
PublisherBeacon Press
GenreBiography, Education, and Relationships
FormatPaperback
PublishedApril 2026
LanguageENG- English
Pages216
Weight1.0 lb
Target AudienceAdults
Print SizeStandard Print

Related Subjects

Biography & Autobiography Family & Relationships Nonfiction Social Science

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More by Jessica Slice

Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World

Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World - Hardcover

Unfit Parent: A Disabled Mother Challenges an Inaccessible World - Hardcover

By Jessica Slice

About Jessica Slice

Jessica Slice is a writer who often writes about her experience as a mom who uses a power wheelchair. Her writing has been featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Glamour, HuffPo, and more. Caroline Cupp is a disabled progressive pastor in Philadelphia. Kayla Harren is an award-winning illustrator of numerous children's books, including the Lambda Literary Award winner Calvin. She graduated from the School of Visual Arts in New York City with a BFA in illustration, and lives in Minnesota with her husband and dogs.

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