One Bad Mother: A Mother's Search for Meaning in the Police Academy

After her six-year-old daughter puts a hammer through a wall, Megan Williams decides to abandon a career as an academic and become a police officer.

It's not lost on her that she may have applied to the Police Academy to escape the realities of mothering twins born via IVF at twenty-nine weeks. As the twins grow and test her endlessly, she feels she is failing. She needs a win.

During a grueling application process, Megan measures herself against the other candidates and confronts the normative notions of what it is to be a good mother. The paralyzing fear that she is a bad mother looms large in her head, as does the real possibility that she might not make the cut at the Academy. With its intertwined narratives of police recruitment and motherhood, the memoir provides an unflinching journalistic view of big-city law enforcement, set atop a personal journey during which Megan learns gratitude and makes peace with a motherhood far different from the dream sold to her by our culture.

About Megan Williams

Prior to her decision to apply to the Police Department, Megan Williams was a professor of English at various universities for over twenty years. After graduating from Haverford College, Megan received her Ph.D. in English from Temple University and taught at Lafayette College and Santa Clara University. Portions of One Bad Mother have received recognition from the New Millennium Award in Nonfiction, the Cagibi Magazine Prize, Panther Creek Award in Non-Fiction, and William Faulkner Creative Writers’ Competition. Last year, Williams won the PNWA award for nonfiction. She and her family currently reside in Bellingham, Washington.

Praise for Megan William's One Bad Mother: A Mother's Search for Meaning in the Police Academy

"Real. Raw. Laugh out loud funny — like motherhood itself. In One Bad Mother, Megan Williams makes us all feel like good mothers, doing the best we can while on the craziest adventure of our lives."

—Leslie Morgan Steiner, author of Crazy Love, Mommy Wars, The Naked Truth, and The Baby Chase

"In One Bad Mother, Megan Williams takes us on a riveting, unvarnished journey as she navigates the complexities of motherhood and the rigorous demands of police training. Her narrative is both heartbreaking and inspiring, shedding light on the unseen sacrifices and triumphs that come with redefining your identity. Megan’s honesty and vulnerability make this a deeply relatable and inspirational read. Her story is also a powerful testament to the inner strength that lies within every woman."

—Natalie MacLean, author of the national bestseller Wine Witch on Fire: Rising from the Ashes of Divorce, Defamation, and Drinking Too Much

"One Bad Mother, by Megan Williams, is an engaging, emotionally resonant portrayal of a woman seeking validation as a new mother, a role that has upturned her identity. Williams examines motherhood, with all its joys and pressures, amid a culture that too often mutes discussion of the staggering societal expectations all mothers face. An entertaining, refreshing read!"

—Kristin Beck, author of Courage, My Love and The Winter Orphans

"Former competitive runner, literature professor, and self-described harsh grader, most notably of herself, Megan Williams meets her match with the birth of preemie twins. Suddenly, all the things she’s trained for and is good at are not the skills she needs to survive this grueling, mid-life passage. Then a chance meeting on a Philadelphia track puts her on the path to becoming a police officer. In One Bad Mother: A Mother’s Search for Meaning in the Police Academy, Williams skillfully weaves together her twin ordeals—to keep her children alive and thriving, and also join one of the largest, toughest police departments in the country. Smartly written and laced with dark humor, One Bad Mother is a powerful story that will resonate with anyone who questions cultural norms and how they shape our expectations. It’s for anyone who wonders who they’ve become at mid-life and fears they’ve lost their way. Deftly layered with references to the literature she loves, Williams discovers sometimes the biggest test we have to pass in life is not the one we set out to take. A riveting, fast-paced read."

—Carol Smith, author of Crossing the River: Seven Stories That Saved My Life, a Memoir

"One Bad Mother is a ride into the familiar and the unknown making this memoir both relatable and fascinating. Tapping into cultural expectations, and the lives of women, Williams explores what it means to be a mother fielding opportunities, facing limits and making choices."

—Corie Adjmi, best-selling author of The Marriage Box

"One Bad Mother is a fearless, honest, and, at times, humorous peek into the challenges of modern motherhood and how we cope when there’s a disconnect between reality and our dreams."

—Lisa Cooper Ellison, author, speaker, and trauma-informed writing coach