In a recent article on Elite Daily, the case was made for the coolness of young, hip millennial mothers. As I scrolled through the adorable Instagram photo compilation, I thought, yep, these chicks are definitely cool. But… they ain’t got nothin’ on me or any of my Gen-X ladies. Or any preceding generation, for that matter.

Every emerging generation of young mothers is convinced they’re reinventing motherhood, right? Don’t we all want to believe we’re improving on the gig? But we aren’t really. Motherhood has always been an intensely beautiful struggle, and staging a sunset-lit, filtered photo for Instagram doesn’t change that.

Riding a scooter down the street with your kid isn’t a novelty, Millennials. Neither is dressing in trendy clothes (when not wearing tattered yoga pants); living on social media (we might be old, but we figured that shit out. We’ve totally heard of Snapchat and Kik.); announcing pregnancies on Facebook (some of us old farts aren’t done having babies yet, because we’re brave like that); or feeding our kids organic food. Who do you think started that trend? Wink wink.

With all this in mind, here are a few of my own photos to demonstrate my undeniable coolness. I would love for all of you to post your own “cool” photos as well on the Abandoning Pretense Facebook page so we can revel together in our collective awesomeness.

Because killing it at motherhood is so not a new thing.

Abandoning Pretense
I might look like I just crawled out of a dumpster in this photo, but dammit I’m still cool!

 

silly
What’s cooler than making silly faces?

 

11258088_821824291228884_929345861_n
It’s organic, bitches, and half the ingredients came from my garden. BOOM.

 

sanibel
We frolic in the waves together, as cool people are known to do.

 

cool
Going to the science museum is definitely cool.

 

Kristen and Mari - tubing
Tubing = cool.

 

Kristen and Mari play area
Pretending hot, filthy, enclosed spaces don’t bother me = SO DAMN COOL.

 

Kristen-Mari-Lucas
Posing with dudes dressed up as orcas? Can’t get any cooler.

 

canon
Posing on a muhfuckin canon? Yeah, these kids are killing it.

 

pumpkins
Killing it with the scarecrow and the pumpkins. Just absolutely killing it.

 

8 Comments

  1. Damn right! I have more tattoos than the millennialist I know! Gen X moms rule!

  2. My brain is overwhelmed with possible photos I can post to your FB page. I mean, I’m RADICALLY cool, to the point that I have hundreds of options. Btw, your pumpkin patch photo is inspirational.

  3. I love of the pictures of you and your adorable family, but I want that pizza. I must have it. And seriously, Gen-X moms are cool, too, and we give no fucks AND we rocked the flannel while babysitting millennials.

  4. Had to click over to see what the fuss was. Holy God that was annoying and pretentious.

    Just like all the rest of us, they are neither “killing,” nor “owning” motherhood but coping and making it up as they go along, and probably scraping dried goo off their shirts with an unmanicured finger nail in between selfies.

    You, however, are certainly so very cool in these photos.

    • Ah, yes, considering my blog is called “Abandoning Pretense,” that piece made my eyes twitch a little. lol

  5. As the 50 yr old mother of an 11 yr old son, I’m not even sure what the fancy-made-up-name for my generation is, nor do I care. But as one cool mom to another, you are definitely rockin’ it in the cool category! You go, girl!

  6. I *wish* I could be as cool as those moms. But unfortunately I am a mother of twos teenagers so not only am I uncool and embarrassing but I’m also dumb as a doorknob and mean to boot. 😉