There are some women who fly the “boy mom” flag high — they proudly include it in their bios, reference it regularly, and use it to explain who they are and what their life is like. To them, #boymom is a label that differentiates them from other parents.
TikTok creator and mom Holli Grasmeyer went viral by explaining how she used to be a proud boy mom, but that now she has a new label: recovering boy mom.
“I used to use hashtag boy mom, she begins her video. “I was a boy mom. I had a shirt that said ‘boy mom’. All I meant was I had only sons. I didn’t mean anything weird by it, and you guys made it weird. Or maybe it’s always been weird — let’s all call our mother-in-laws and find out.”
When did the big change occur? When she suddenly added a couple of stepdaughters to her family.
“Then I met my husband and he’s a girl dad. Also just meaning he has only daughters. Nothing weird about that either,” she continues. “So then we blended our families and now I have two sons and two daughters. There was a piece of me that thought, ‘Boys are feral, boys are wild. Boys are playing WWE constantly. They’re messy and they’re wild and they’re insane and they never stop moving.’”
But it turns out that once you have exposure to enough kids, you realize that gender stereotypes are just that: stereotypes.
“And then I met my girls and I was like, ‘Oh. They’re just children. Boys are kids and girls are kids. And there are some kids who are cool and sit and color for an hour. And that’s awesome. I don’t know those kids,” she jokes.
It turns out that her daughters play WWE too, among other things.
“My daughter’s name is Sienna, and her nickname when they do WWE is John Sienna. Which I’m really proud of. They’re all crazy because they’re crazy.”
Well said.
The video has been viewed 4.6 million times and has amassed almost 500,000 likes — and parents from all over are agreeing with her conclusion: kids are kids are kids.
“My son is very very chill,” one parent shared to many up-likes. “My daughter is very very unchill😂”
“Heavy on they’re all crazy 😝 😂,” another added.
“Yes thank you,” another mom commented. “It’s so painful to see ‘only boy moms will understand just how wild it gets’ and it’s just a toddler being a toddler.”
“Finally someone says it,” another woman wrote. “Growing up with all sisters people used to comment how nice it must be but we were also feral.”
There you have it! Girls can wreck havoc with the best of them and boys can be quiet and sensitive. Turns out it’s all about their personality, not their gender.