There’s a difference between a funny crazy mother and a not-so-funny one. I am a proud daughter of the former. Kate Siegel‘s mom, on the other hand, might fall into the latter. Siegel runs the viral Instagram “Crazy Jewish Mom,” where she screenshots the near constant text conversations between her and her mother for humorous purposes.
Except I’m not really laughing. Sure, there’s a couple of gems, like this one:
And this one.
But the majority of the feed, which started late last year, is body-shaming, micromanaging, and insulting. Siegel–whose pictures confirm is rather petite–is repeatedly bashed by her mother for her weight in a nasty, catty way.
And is repeatedly chastised for not being married or pregnant yet.
Did I mention the body-shaming?
Sure, every mom wants to help motivate their child to be successful, happy, and healthy. But round-the-clock mean-spirited texting isn’t the key to any of those things. Also how anyone finds that much time and energy to be mean to their own children is beyond me, but maybe that’s just me.
Also, Jewish mothers deal with enough harmful stereotypes as is, and this only reinforces them in a gross way. The feed, along with its comments from other Jewish kids saying how “true” the posts are, casts Jewish parents in a very unflattering light.
I’m glad Siegel is experiencing some Internet fame in exchange for putting up with this insanity, but she should probably set some boundaries between her and her mother, and fast.
And maybe get some therapy instead of that Botox her mom keeps suggesting.
