Boy Mom

About

Boy Mom is a slang term typically used by mothers who either only have male children or tend to show favoritism towards their male children. The term grew out of a sphere of "Mommy Bloggers" in the early 2010s that created digital personalities that revolved around raising boys. Over the years, self-professed "boy moms" have been criticized for having unhealthy and emotionally incestuous relationships with their male children, as well as perpetuating untrue sexist stereotypes about boys being more "chaotic" and messy than girls. A slang converse of this phrase that also exists on the internet is "girl dad."

Origin

Amy Williams, president of the Dallas-based LLC "Boymom" trademarked the phrase "boymom" as used on apparel since 2007.^[10][11]

The phrase "boy mom" grew out of internet Mommy Blogger subcultures in the early 2010s, with the earliest known blog to use the specific term "Boymom" being a website called Mom vs. The Boys.^[1] An August 16th, 2012 post on the blog reads, "You Know You’re a Boy Mom When….."

Other blog posts from the early 2010s written by self-professed "boy moms" often discuss gender essentialist ideas, with one blogger saying that she would "take the physical boys over the dramatic girls any day,"^[2] and another making a list of typical "boy" attributes like "boys get dirty," and "boys are mischievous."^[3]

Spread

On October 8th, 2021, Urban Dictionary^[13] user couldprobablyjustDrinktea4ever posted a definition for the term "boy mom" that read, "A mom who is emotionally incestuous with her sons"

On December 2nd, 2021, Redditor^[16] /u/anuscluck made a post to /r/unpopularopinion about "boy mom" behavior on Facebook, gathering over 1,000 upvotes in two years (seen below, left). On December 22nd, 2022, Redditor^[15] /u/Vegetable-Drawing215 posted a screengrab of a "boy mom" Facebook post, gathering over 1,000 upvotes in eight months (seen below, right).

TikTok Trend

In early August 2023, TikToker @petamurgs,^[4] @lauraelizabethgraham^[5] and various other TikTok^[8] "boy moms" posted videos with captions along the lines of "Making sure my son can cook so he’s not impressed by your daughter’s [Stouffer’s] lasagna" @petamurgs's video gathered over a million views and 300,000 likes before being deleted. The video by @lauraelizabethgraham can be seen below, left. TikToker^[9] @chezchanelle's August 2nd, 2023 video gathered over 116,000 views and 3,000 likes in a month (seen below, right).

Various TikTokers criticized this "boy mom" trend, calling it patronizing towards women, and saying that learning to cook is a useful skill to have for both boys and girls. On August 5th, 2023, TikToker^[6] @theewilsons posted a video reacting to the trend, with a caption that read, "Teaching my son how to cook so your daughters don't have to deal with a man that thinks cooking is a woman's job and not a life skill." The post gathered over 400,000 plays and 83,000 likes in a month (seen below, left). TikToker^[7] @mollivegarden posted a TikTok criticizing the TikTok boy mom videos and gathering over 11 million views and 1.5 million likes in two weeks (seen below, right).

Twitter / X

On February 27th, 2023, X^[12] user @nhoodpublicist posted a clip from a Saturday Night Live: The Weekend Update segment with the caption, "This boy mom skit was executed so well that you almost forget it’s satire," gathering over 20,000 likes in six months (seen below).

On August 1st, 2023, X user @LeaMaric posted a screenshot of a video with a caption that read, "when you're so in love with being a boy mom and suddenly realize it means you'll be some girl's mother-in-law one day." The post gathered over 103,000 likes in a month (seen below).

On August 3rd, 2023, X^[14] user @danishacarterr quoted a video of a mother and her son with a caption that read, "'boy mom' is not a phrase borne of comedy lol…… it references a very commonly seen disturbing dynamic that must be stopped," gathering over 38,000 likes in a month (seen below).

Search Interest

External References