I recently watched the trailer for the upcoming film, Bad Moms. As I'm sure many of other moms did during the preview - I laughed.
It looks funny, right?
The clips show a mother (played by Mila Kunis) trying to stumble awkwardly through motherhood and perform to the level of what she thinks she should be as a mom. Then we see more footage of this character getting fed up with everyone's expectations of her and just throwing caution to the wind - partying it up with her mom friends and discussing motherhood with brutal honesty.
The concept of giving society the finger, breaking out your inner rebel, and doing as you please has always been a popular theme. That's why a lot of moms will want to see this film. Sometimes we all just want to give everyone the finger - even our own families.
The glimpse we got into the Christina Applegate character - a blonde ice queen who runs the PTA like Hitler - is no doubt intended to appeal to those moms who feel inadequate because they don't volunteer at their children's school or participate in bake sales on a regular basis.
I get it. I relate to those moms.
Although the exaggerated, villainous PTA mom depicted in the movie trailer made me chuckle, I caught a strong vibe of the "Mommy Wars" running rampant in this story line. Even though I'm sure this movie is only meant to be funny (and to make money), it seems outdated as far as the status quo goes on moms these days.
Unless I'm behind the times, I thought we as women - and mothers - were working on learning how to accept one another whether we work or stay at home, have husbands or are single, breastfeed or formula feed.
Why are mommies at war yet again in this film? It's really no different than the clique systems in high school with the "popular" girls, "loner" girls and so on.
Why does a mom always have to be seen as "perfect" if she likes being a member of the PTA? Maybe she just enjoys it.
The desire to say exactly what you think, take a break, go out with friends, and escape from being a mom for a night or two is a desire in all of us. Feeling inferior or fed up is not a symptom of being a "bad mom". It's just life and we're only human.
I think many moms live in a reality where they have already discovered that the super mom status many of us try or have tried to reach is the result of unattainable fantasies which we have absorbed through television, social media, and our own personal expectations.
I would like to think it's generally agreed that the idea of being a super perfect mom is made of fluff and fiction and should only be consumed as satire.
And now maybe I see the point that is trying to be made in this film, which is possibly that we all need to laugh at ourselves a bit more and our seriousness about parenting - and motherhood especially - should be reigned in once in a while. It's okay to laugh at the the absurdity of the pedestals and stereotypes we've manifested for ourselves.
It's okay to be raunchy and cliche sometimes. So what.
The film Bad Moms may not be very progressive for the path of women accepting one another, but it does look like it offers up some good laughs. The idea of being a "bad mom" is no doubt going to seem very cool and rebellious now.
I think we all have days where we want to be rebel mamas. But that role may be tough to keep up with on a daily basis. Being a mom rocks your world and can definitely lead to an identity crisis. Best we can do is try not to let all the labels get to us.
For now, I'm going to stick to being a human mom - or maybe just a bad-good-mom.
Originally a Vancouver Island native, Michelle now resides in California where she is an ex-corporate slave, writer, artist, mother, stepmother, & wife.
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