The curated perfection of social media—where every room, outfit and activity feel plucked straight out of a Pinterest board—can be a soothing escape from the messiness of real life.
But let’s face it—it’s easy to get oversaturated in this type of content. And after being constantly inundated with spotless kitchens and flawless faces and endless matcha-favoring morning routines, the aspirational easily becomes aggravating.
The rise of momfluencers can be a prime example of this. Sure, many mommy bloggers offer really helpful tips, product suggestions and doses of inspiration to their followers. But at the same time, they do push an ideal that doesn’t acknowledge the messy, chaotic reality that most moms experience everyday.
And that is exactly what one mom is fed up with.
A woman named Elle (or @elledotmo on TikTok) recently shared how she was particularly tired of scrolling through her TikTok feed and finding nothing real, especially considering the app used to “be for people just being themselves and telling the truth about their lives.”
Here is what she’d like to see more of instead.
“I, as a mom, want to see people doing realistic mom things. I want to see what it’s like for you to like conquer the mountain of laundry that has been you know piling up for weeks, and you have literally no idea how you’re going to do it. Maybe you don’t even finish it, but that’s relatable because most of us don’t,” she said.
Another request: non aesthetic kitchens. Why? “Because even though we like to be minimalist there’s stuff everywhere all the time. Because who has time to wash the dishes, dry them, and actually put them away instead of just letting them sit on a dry mat on your counter for like a day and half?” Preach.
@elledotmo #stitch with @Nikki | inner thoughts only totally agree. #deinfluencing #nonaesthetic #nonaestheticmom #momvibes #momsover30 #momsbelike ♬ original sound – ✨ Elle ✨
Also: parents who have to get “creative” with their date nights since they don’t have family members to watch the kids, chaotic mornings of trying to get the kids ready for school and minivans covered with cracker crumbs.
The reason behind Elle’s desire isn’t to see “struggle or negativity” instead she explains. Rather, she feels that having relatable content is just as important.
“Most of us — due to the economy or just due to life stage that we’re in — are … not living these aesthetic perfect lifestyles where everything’s all soft and cozy and sounds nice and looks nice and smells nice all day. Most of us are just trying to figure out how to, like, survive in our routines the way that they are,” she says in the clip.
To that end, Elle doesn’t want to do away with mom influencers entirely, nor does she think they will ever go away. But she does think there can be a compromise.
“It would be great to see like people realistically showing us how that they’re doing that in ways that maybe we can make small tweaks in our lives to do it too or so that we can just like relate to one another and encourage one another,” she posits.
She definitely has some valuable points. And she’s clearly not the only one to want this type of content. Messy house tours have gone viral just as easily as videos of professionally designed homes. People want to be able to be inspired, but also feel seen. Luckily the internet is vast, and can cater to both needs.