We all know just how obnoxious "mommy shaming" can be. It's the practice of putting moms down over their parenting tactics, and it's usually highly critical. It's more harmful than it is helpful, and it's almost always done out of pure judgment. But the most frustrating thing about this all-too-common practice is that sometimes it doesn't even come from seasoned parents. Oftentimes, some of the worst mommy shaming comes from people who don't even have kids themselves.
Not that it's right for anyone to judge your parenting to begin with, but when the criticism comes from a person who hasn't walked your path and doesn't understand all the challenges of being a mom, it's all the more aggravating.
JP Sears, a comedian, author, and YouTuber, just made a hilarious video, and it's all about the absurdity mommy shaming. If you don't know about JP, he's known for posting videos that border on the ridiculous, but he sometimes makes some pretty solid points in the process. This video is no exception. In fact, moms everywhere are taking notice of it and sharing it far and wide.
JP calls himself a "satirical life coach." What that means is that he puts his energy into videos that point out how utterly ridiculous things are pretty much all the time. He particularly likes poking fun at "new age beliefs." But it's all in good fun and pretty easy to laugh at.
Mommy shaming seems to be one of those "new age" phenomenons. We don't exactly know why it happens, but it happens. JP couldn't resist the opportunity to comment on it. And the video turned out to be utterly hilarious.
In the 2-minute, 40-second video, JP acts as the unabashed mommy shamer. It opens with him lambasting the mother of a small child. "You're letting Divina eat Cheerios?" he asks in a condescending voice. "What the h*ll is wrong with you?"
The video only gets more and more absurd (and hilarious) as it goes on. It cuts to JP speaking to the camera while in coach mode. "Mommy shaming is so in style right now," he says. "It's usually a motivational technique used to teach moms how to be better moms by pointing out what they're doing wrong as moms."
"You are a horrible mom letting your daughter look face to face with a beast," he says, while the toddler in the video plays with a dog. It seems completely ridiculous, but honestly? Most moms have heard worse. Moms of small children get criticized for just about every choice they make, and that includes letting their kids near animals.
"I think deep down inside mothers really appreciate it when you point out what they're doing wrong," he says. The video cuts back to the mother, sitting close by her child. You hear JP say to the small child, "Are you potty trained yet, or does your mother not even love you?"
It's hard to top, but it gets better (or worse, depending on how you look at it). JP starts to get into why he, a person who has no kids, is the best, most qualified person to critique parenting. Again, it's utterly ridiculous, and yet someone, somewhere has been guilty of this crime. Just ask the nearest mom.
JP says the thing that makes him the most qualified is the fact that he isn't a mom. "That means I have a 100% clear track record where I've never done anything wrong as a mother." LOL.
He's not wrong, and yet he's so so wrong. Somehow, people who don't even have kids judge and shame moms all the time! So in some ways, he's very right.
While this comedian definitely loves to push the limits of what's appropriate, and he probably loves to push people's buttons, his approach is pretty unique and witty. This video definitely hit the nail on the head when it comes to the epidemic of mommy shaming. No wonder it's been viewed over 45K times since just Thursday on Instagram alone.
Perhaps JP's latest video will do a bit of good, and the next time a mommy shamer thinks about making some ridiculous comment, they'll think twice. Well, probably not. We're talking about mommy shamers here. But one can hope.
You can follow JP on Instagram @AwakenWithJP for more hilariously on-point videos.
