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STFU Parents: How The Olympics Have Inspired Parents On Facebook
With the 2014 Winter Olympics soon drawing to a close, I felt a surge of inspiration to compile the incredibly boring ways that moms talk about the Games on social media whenever the multi-sport events are held (which is seemingly every year now — score!). It was nearly two short years ago that I wrote a similar recap of responses to the 2012 Summer Olympics, and now here we are again, cheering for our country’s team and re-discovering the stalest joke in America — that moms, too, are one version of Olympian. Of course, this type of endorsement (that moms often give to themselves) doesn’t come without a formal nudging; for years, we’ve seen the Olympics milk the “moms are our greatest supporters” sentiment — complete with whole campaigns about athletes and their sacrificial mothers, many of which resulted in emotional commercials that bring casual viewers to tears — for several seasons of Olympic Games. These commercials are befitting for a massive-scale event that ties the whole world together, each of us unified by a few crucial things: our love of competition, our motivation to win gold, and the fact that everyone, including all the amazing athletes, was once birthed by a mother who presumably cheered their kid to victory on his or her road to greatness. Aww. So sweet!
And while I’ll admit those maudlin P&G commercials do tug at my heart strings, I’m starting to think we’re turning the realOlympics into one big “mom celebration” so that brands can rake in all the proverbial mom dollars at the supermarket. “Mom Olympics” have long been a running joke among women who understand the importance of multi-tasking, and in my opinion, there’s no sadder comparison than a dishrag-toting mom who likens herself to a world class sportswoman. Rather than let the athletes shine, these hilarious jokesters focus on how there should be a Mom Olympics, because no one exemplifies determination and strength of spirit more than your average mom. NO ONE! Sure, these athletes have worked their way into the Olympics, but do you know who was holding their hand along the way, not to mention doing their laundry and a million other chores?! Their mothers. And that is why every time the Olympic Games roll back around, so do the Mom Olympics jokes.
Thanks to P&G, mothers are already a part of the conversation, and thanks to local businesses, mom bloggers, and parents on social media, they’ll surely remain that way. Want to know what the Mom Olympics would entail? There’s a column for that. There’s also a mom blogger guide for that (shared on Facebook 10k+ times, of course). There was even a charity event in Atlanta called the Coupon Mom Olympics. Soon enough, there will be a REAL Mom Olympics (sponsored by P&G) that will occur every two to four years and we will all feel very silly. Just you wait! In the meantime, let’s check out this year’s best (aka extremely boring) examples of how moms talk about the Olympic Games.
