How often do you hear the word, “Mooooom” — so much so, that you impulsively turn around, no matter whose child says it in public?
A worn-out mom calculated the number of times her children whined, begged and beckoned her in one day.
The total: 234 times.
“The kids just kept calling for me and calling for me even though my husband was home and was able to help them,” Jasmine, a mother of three in Australia, tells TODAY.com, in an email interview. “It was the classic, “‘Dad, where’s Mum? I need her to get my water bottle’ kind of day.”
Jasmine asked TODAY.com to not publish her last name, for privacy reasons.
Jasmine counted with a handheld device, on a weekday from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., while home with her daughter Charlie, 4, and son Conor, 2.
“It was a way of quantifying and then justifying how the constant interruption was feeling,” Jasmine tells TODAY.com.
Jasmine says when her family asked what the device was for, she simply answered, “I’m counting some stuff.”
In Jasmine’s TikTok video, she explained while cooking breakfast, “It is 10 to 9 and we are at 88 ‘Mums.’” By lunchtime, Jasmine had heard “Mom” 127 times. In the late afternoon, it was 181 times.
“So, we wonder why mums are sick of hearing their name — 234 times today,” Jasmine said in the video that evening, collapsed in bed and still wearing her bathrobe. “Also, just did some quick math: If that’s the daily average number in one year, I’m hearing it 85,410 times. Goodnight.”
Moms heard the call to comment.
- “The limit does not exist!”
- “On Mother’s Day, I asked only for my name to not be mentioned for a single day. They did it. What a glorious day. I wasn’t triggered once!”
- “The word … overstimulates me so much.”
- “Isn’t it funny how excited you get when they first say the word ‘Mom.’”
- “I hear it in my sleep and sometimes, I’m home alone and I can swear I hear, ‘Mom.’”
- “It’s the equivalent of receiving 234 emails that need immediate attention and the majority of those emails result in tantrums. Exhausting!”
- “‘Dad’ would be called three times, to ask where ‘Mom’ is.”
“You could tell some of the mums who commented felt seen by the video and that was nice,” Jasmine tells TODAY.com. “There were lots of other comments telling me that I need to be ‘grateful’ to hear my name so many times in a day, because they either had a non-verbal child or had lost a child.”
Jasmine adds, “What these people don’t realize is that I had a baby stillborn when I was 32 weeks pregnant, so I know intimately the pain of never having your child say your name … Two things are allowed to be true at the same time: I can be immensely grateful and sick of the repetition.”
The mom says her video was, “To show one element of being a present mother and to help people understand maybe why a mum might be feeling so mentally ‘touched out.’”
It’s not just a call for ‘Mom’ — it’s a “follow-up task” and a “mental interruption,” she says.
“We should be able to vocalize an element of our day without being made to feel like we are just complaining,” says Jasmine, adding, “It feels good to have it quantified when we can’t really put a monetary value on the work we do.”
Moms who are the “default parent” in their relationships should talk to their partners, says Jasmine.
“Encourage your children to do what you and they are comfortable with for themselves,” says Jasmine. “This not only builds confidence in them, but may also reduce … the amount of times you are called.”
发表回复