Don't Bathe With Uncle Joe: Setting Boundaries With Adults (Signed Copy)

Don't Bathe With Uncle Joe: Setting Boundaries With Adults... A Guide That Should Not Have Been Necessary But Here We Are

Uncle Joe got fired at work. Uncle Joe says it was his boss's fault. Uncle Joe has since moved into a living situation that has created some unexpected communal bathroom scheduling, and the situation has produced this book, which is a guide to setting boundaries with adults that no one wanted to have to write but someone clearly felt strongly enough about to illustrate in cartoon form. Uncle Joe is not a villain in his own telling of events. The book does not entirely share this perspective.

This adult parody book addresses the concept of personal boundaries with specific adults through the format typically used to explain those concepts to children, because apparently the format intended for adults has not been sufficiently persuasive in Joe's case. It is dark. It is funny. It is the kind of book that makes you laugh and then briefly wonder if you should be laughing, and then the cartoon of Uncle Joe makes you laugh again before you can finish that thought. The boundary, notably, has not yet been set.

This Book IS For:

• Adults who have a specific uncle, or uncle-equivalent figure, whose presence in certain spaces has been repeatedly discussed
• Anyone who has had to explain to another adult, using simple language, why something is not acceptable
• Fans of dark humor that is specific enough to be recognizable and general enough to apply to multiple people in your life simultaneously
• Gift-givers who want to send a message and have decided a book is less confrontational than a direct conversation

This Book Is NOT For:

• People named Joe who feel this is a generalization and resent the implication
• Anyone who believes Uncle Joe's version of why he got fired and has said so publicly at family events
• Readers who want their humor entirely separate from any recognizable domestic situation they may currently be living in
• Family members who have been asked to "just let it go" and are in fact letting it go just fine, thank you

Appropriate For:

• Family gatherings where this book can be left conspicuously visible without requiring a direct conversation
• White elephant exchanges among families who have at least one shared reference point for Uncle Joe energy
• Gag gifts for anyone navigating an overfamiliar adult relationship with someone who does not read the room
• Any occasion that calls for a gift that says something specific without the giver having to say it out loud

Why Buy This

Some conversations cannot be had. The power dynamics are wrong, or the family system doesn't support it, or the person you'd need to have the conversation with does not believe the conversation is necessary. In those cases, you have three options: say nothing, say something directly and face the consequences, or buy this book, place it where it will be seen, and maintain plausible deniability about whether it was a personal message or simply a funny book you happened to have. This is the third option in paperback form.

It costs less than a therapy session that will ultimately tell you to set boundaries anyway. It costs less than the ongoing social management of a situation that this book could at least partially address. It costs almost nothing and communicates something. Don't bathe with Uncle Joe. The book says so. The book is right.