When you’re a mom, you get a lot of unsolicited titles thrown at you. Maybe you’re a ‘mommy blogger’ or a ‘home birther;’ a ‘baby wearer’ or an ‘Earth mama.’ Frankly, it can be exhausting to try to differentiate between the compliments, the veiled insults, and the straight-up judgment.
In fact, constant appraisal of everything from your sleep schedule to your exercise routine might be a universal truth of motherhood. But the most maligned, disputed, coveted, and ambiguous mommy label out there stands in a class all of its own — the ‘cool mom.’ What exactly is a ‘cool mom’ anyway?
While the phrase has seemingly always been in the lexicon, it was immortalized in Mean Girls by Amy Poehler’s turn as a Juicy-wearing, cocktail-mixing, peroxide blonde desperately seeking validation (“I’m not like a regular mom, I’m a cool mom,” she says with an earnest wink.)
While hilarious, the Mean Girls variation on the theme seems to have fallen by the wayside in the past few years, as millennial mamas take to Instagram and reclaim the sobriquet. Women who came of age in or around the year 2000 are proving that they have what it takes to actually be a cool mom. Not to mention at least one millennial grandma.
The new motherhood isn't about impressing the under-fifteen set, or about attempting to befriend your kids rather than raise them. This is just about being an awesome, creative woman with a feel for the cultural moment, and a desire to raise her little ones to be just as original and fearless as she is!
Are you a cool mama? Scroll through our gallery to find out!
And please SHARE this list with your friends!
1. You've mastered the messy topknot and passed it down to the next generation.
2. You love the great outdoors, and take your little guys 'glamping.'
3. You and your mini-me have a refined palette, and an appreciation for understated earth tones.
4. Your kids are well-versed in the dual arts of extreme sports and extreme side-eye.
5. Your Mommy 'n' Me selfie game is on point.
6. Your child is color-coordinated with your ink.
7. And he doesn't even look twice at your septum ring.
8. Neither of you would look out of place at Coachella. #flowercrown
9. You or your baby went as a trendy literary character for Halloween. What a pair of wild things!
10. And the last sign that you might be a cool mom? Even the T-shirt that you're wearing with your vintage overalls knows what's up.
Please SHARE these awesome moms with your friends and family!
