Our head of content Holly Wainright thinks that “Scummy Mummies” get a bad rap, and that “it’s time to take back being a Hot Mess Mum.” Introducing a new class of Supermum: the Super Hot Mess Mum!
Maybe you’re messy. Maybe you’re a little bit lazy. Maybe you like to sleep ’til 11 on the weekend, binge watching TV ’til the early hours.
Perhaps you’re always late. Not chronically late, but a solid 15-minuter. Always rushing. Always the one who can’t find your keys/has lost your phone/forgot to get cash out before dinner.
Before you have a child, all of the above is perfectly acceptable behaviour. A collection of traits beloved of A-types everywhere – because you’re their Hot Mess friend.
But once you reproduce, the acceptable options for your personality shrink, seemingly overnight, to one-size-fits-all.
Suddenly it’s not okay to be the one who forgot to put a clean nappy in the backpack. “What are you? A dad?” the raised eybrows seem to whisper.
Suddenly, being the one who has more than one drink at the mothers’ group Christmas party doesn’t make you fun, it makes you irresponsible. “But aren’t you breast-feeding?” asks Spritzer lady. Your explanation that prosecco is too bubbly to penetrate boob milk isn’t amusing anyone.
Even in 2018, the mum ideal is a domestic goddess with a colour-coded wall calendar and a pantry full of size-ordered Tupperware containers. The Hot Mess Mum is a pariah.
But not anymore, because being a mum can be messy, so why not own it instead?
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