Motherhood and Media

"Maybe you should look at Reddit less," my mother suggested. It was a very good suggestion. I'd spent the last few of our conversations discussing one parenting subreddit's warnings against "baby containers" (which is basically anything that might "restrict" an infant's freedom of movement) and was stressing about that and other common parenting forum "controversies" too. It was becoming a bit of a joke in my household; whenever someone suggested buying something for the baby or trying a new approach for pretty much anything, I'd respond, "Well, that is..." My husband has started finishing the sentence: "Wait, let me guess! That's something that is now considered 'controversial.'" Some of the things that have deep, passionate controversies and debates on the parenting forums and subreddits are a follows: formula feeding, spoon feeding, co-sleeping, giving baby their own room, not giving baby their o...

This past week, I belatedly watched the Hulu teen comedy Crush (2022). At the start of the movie, the protagonist Paige first develops a crush on her classmate A.J. when they pair up together for the "egg baby" project.  Watching this scene, I was immediately filled with nostalgia; I remember doing a similar project in fifth grade... though for the life of me I cannot remember if I had a partner or not. I do remember dutifully keeping my 'parenting' journal, which strangely feels like it parallels my modern (real) motherhood habit of tracking my baby's needs and habits in a brightly-colored app.  It was in high school, though, that the big "parenting preparation project" occurred. Rather than eggs or a bag of flour, in my high-school we simulated parenting through what I call the dreaded 'Robo-Baby.' 

The internet loves a good dogpile. Social media moves swiftly and furiously when a new "main character" has been announced, and it's crazy how a nearly anonymous someone becomes a talking point around the world. With all the posting about Ana Mardoll today or whoever is the new hot topic by the time this posts, it may be hard to remember that just days ago that target was... Momlife_comics.  Momlife_comics is an Instagram comic that became the target of rage, amusement, and mockery for about a day on Twitter. I honestly don't know how the recent attention started, and I've decided for the sake of my sanity not to find out (researching Twitter accounts seemed like a rather depressing idea of how to spend my time). I do know, though, that the reach of the attention was vast; my husband and I have shockingly different Twitter algorithms and follow very different people, but when I started talking to him about Twitter dogpiles and an online comic, he immediately said...