I don't know about you, but I can always tell when someone's a new mom. The seemingly otherworldly influx of wisdom of knowledge, the tired rings around their eyes, the baby in their arms... it's not always easy to tell, but I'm getting better at it. Soon, I'll be a master at it.
Unless I've had a contraception nightmare, it's probably going to be a very long time before I get to be a parent, but luckily (?), I can hear about what it's like to be a parent at any time by logging onto social media and scrolling for a good couple of minutes. From then on, it's only a matter of time before I see a baby photo, or someone complaining about how hard it is to be a parent.
This isn't to say that parenting isn't hard.
Raising a child one of the hardest things we'll ever do as human beings, but what probably doesn't help is being a mother or father in the internet age. Provided you can stay strong in the face of shaming and/or judgement, there's the very real threat of your newfound status as caregiver going to your head, causing you to say some pretty ridiculous things in the process for the entire internet to see.
Case in point, this lady who posted that she deserved to cut lines at a coffeeshop because she was a mother. Yeah, she was probably tired from having to take care of a baby or whatever, but her photo and sassy sign masquerading as hot take did not go down well on Twitter. Not one bit.
"Moms should get a fast pass to the front of the line at coffee shops. Honey, you're 22 & slept 10 hours last night? Get to the back of the line," says the picture in question, on a sign for extra obnoxiousness. Who's the mother, here? Nobody's quite sure, but the account @SlutWhisperer picked it up, and posted it to its million-strong following.
From there, only one thing was going to happen. It's one thing having a snappy, yet poorly-thought-out opinion (what is social media if not a vehicle for expressing your snappy, yet poorly-thought-out opinions?), but by taking down this opinion savagely on social media by way of straw man argument, are we really any better?
Who knows. Let's get into the savagery, shall we? First off, this doozy from @SlutWhisperer themselves. Expressed in all-caps, no less.
Twitter wasn't far behind, as you've come to expect, and people had jokes for this lady who thinks that mothers should get to be at the front of coffee shop line. None of them complimentary.
I could go on, folks, but I feel like you get the point. I'm sure that wherever this mom is, she wanted to post a photo that would go viral. I don't think, however, that this is what she had in mind.
