Social media is anxiety-inducing when times are good—why doesn’t my stew look exactly like Alison Roman’s? Wait, everyone’s on a yacht without me? Oh my god, how does she have time to color-coat her pantry? Add in kids, and you take it to another level—how in the hell did she pull off that DIY princess canopy bed? How are her kids so…clean? When did she learn TikTok!?
Though lots of things have changed in the time of COVID-19, “momstagramming” has not. And if you thought things were Insta-perfect before quarantine, buckle up, because some moms are absolutely thriving in isolation—or at least they’re posting like it—making troves of moms even more anxious than they were before. For many, it started with one mom’s viral schedule which accounts for every hour between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. with everything from waking up to contingency plans if it’s raining (yoga instead of a family walk).
There are tons of grateful comments thanking the user for sharing her detailed daily plan, including one “grown ass woman” who could use it to “desperately [add] some structure” to her days. But for lots of moms, it simply highlights their own failures as they scramble to retain some semblance of normalcy in their day-to-day. With childcare plans out the window, parents who can work remotely now need to create systems that allow for them to work on top of parenting and household duties. And that doesn’t include the parents who are now their own school administrators.
“The color-coded COVID schedule has by now made the internet rounds and has spurred plenty of ire as well as admiration,” said one reader, mother of two. “But the main complaint in my circles isn't the idea of a schedule. (Schedules are great! My kids go bonkers without a schedule!) It's the holier than thou specificity of this schedule. 10 a.m. Sodoku cards? Getting the kids to wipe down the toilets? Please. I'm lucky if everybody in my house is wearing pants, let alone participating in brain games.”