The Seesaw of Working Motherhood 

Erma Bombeck lives.

Not literally, of course. The housewife humorist with the No. 1 syndicated column of the 1970s and Eighties died in 1996, but she left an immortal legacy and tradition. Bombeck’s honest views of motherhood and wifedom, heavily tempered with zany zingers, led to generations of copycat creations. Every paper had their own “women’s” column for a while. Then came the rise of blunt mommy blogs, which then spawned today’s overly confessional TikTok creators. Ever watched a woman hide from her children in the car while eating leftover kid’s meal fries? Thank Erma Bombeck.

So while I hadn’t actually known who Bombeck was before experiencing Austin Playhouse’s production of Margaret and Allison Engel’s 2015 show Erma Bombeck: At Wit’s End, her work felt intimately familiar. I’ve been reading ghosts of her writing my entire life. 

The Engels’ script crafts a one-woman show that blends Bombeck’s history with snippets of her own work – a prodigious well to choose from, considering she produced three columns a week for years and 15 books as well. In a glorious 65-minute production (that’s right, you can fit culture and an early bedtime into one night, a true gift for every working mother in the audience), Bombeck introduces herself, gives a brief synopsis of her rise as a writer, and introduces causes she championed, such as childhood cancer awareness and the Equal Rights Amendment.

Austin Playhouse resurrects Bombeck with aplomb. Under the direction of Lara Toner Haddock, Sarah Fleming Walker channels Bombeck’s spirit with cheeky confidence. The script needs the actor to dash off cheery bons mots one moment and navigate deeply emotional truths the next. Walker has to utter lines like “My idea of housework is to sweep the room with a glance” (relatable!), before quickly pivoting into a reverie on the nature of life itself. 

Walker is immediately endearing. She’s not the broad Midwestern everywoman that Bombeck presented in real life, but still comes across as clever and quick, a big mind with a bigger heart. As Bombeck, Walker shares, “I had been hiding my hopes and dreams in the back of my mind. It was the only safe place in the house. From time to time, I got them out and played with them. Reveal them to others? No, they were too fragile.” There’s nothing stale about that sentiment. Nope. It’s an arrow to the heart, and proves that good writing transcends time. 

That mix of raw truths sprinkled with laughs (to keep from crying, of course) gets at the core of this script and production. It’s a beautiful meditation on family and motherhood, on how the role of women has progressed but, also, stayed the same. While there’s a rich glaze of boomer humor coating Bombeck’s words, they still testify to the universality of experience. These aren’t concepts we’ve aged out of as a culture. They’re words that cut to the quick with their eternal honesty.   

So while my opening weekend audience was predominantly made up of Bombeck’s peers, age-wise, I’d encourage anyone who enjoys quick humor in a blessedly quick show to seek out Austin Playhouse’s At Wit’s End. Take your mom. She’ll be thrilled, and you won’t regret it. Enjoy whatever generational conversation blooms afterward. 

This article appears in May 29 • 2026.