(Photo courtesy of stxmovies.com)

Why Being a ‘Bad Mom’ Doesn’t  Have to be the Last Resort
A Deeper Look at the ‘Bad Moms’ Movie

By Andrea Yim

Being a mom is fulfilling. Joyous. Amazing. It is also the hardest job known to mankind. It’s the kind of job where the pressure is heavy from the outside world as well as heavy from inside the house. Your work is competing against that of the so-called “perfect” mom. Yet, inside that little heart of yours, you just want to be you!

You want to be that mom who bakes gluten free cupcakes because you love to and because you enjoy baking and being healthy. Or maybe you want to be that mom who buys cupcakes from Albertsons (this is totally me) because the night before you chose to play handball with your kids instead of baking. It wasn’t even a difficult decision because you absolutely hate baking and you don’t really care if anyone thinks your cupcakes are good or not- the grocery store does a fine job! You want to homeschool your kids because you enjoy it and because you don’t want to send your children out in this horrible world. Or maybe you want your kids to go to school because you know it would be best for everyone and their grandma if they did!

You just want to be you, but the pressure to be like that “other” mom is like that old t-shirt you wear everyday and can’t seem to change. Our society has become so discouraging! This generation of moms is encouraged to compare themselves with their peers rather than to enjoy their kids.

What happens when we allow ourselves to get sucked into that lie is exactly what the new movie “Bad Moms” shows. Now, I did not see the movie, only the previews and trailers, so what I’m about to say is based solely on my judgments and the message I interpreted through those resources.

These moms begin to do crazy things because they are not living up to those moms that are “better than them,” so they cause a rebellion and basically decide that they deserve to do whatever they want because it’s “their” time! Now, I get it. We moms need a break! We need to have time to gather ourselves because we do wear a lot of hats. But just because we need a break doesn’t mean we need to go off the deep end. It means we need to find a society of other encouraging moms to build each other up, and to hold up other fellow moms’ arms when they are down. It means we need to rejoice with those moms who stayed up all night and baked or prepared school lessons, but it also means we need to rejoice with those who don’t do things the way you do things.

This new movie, although seemingly hilarious, sends out the completely wrong and opposite message of what God’s word tells us. This message of, “forget it and do what you feel in that moment,” cannot become our reality. This message of division between who’s better and who’s not, is truly and simply so silly. We are all so different with different gifts and it’s all a beautiful mess. When we get to that point of throwing in the towel, the greatest reminder I have personally is my kids! Our kids are our greatest reward.

Raising good kids is hard enough, but raising godly kids is even harder. So we need to be our kids’ greatest example and greatest source of strength without falling apart and giving in. We should encourage other moms in what their parenting looks like even if it’s not what you would do or how you would do it. Society will always have one way of looking at things, just like this movie, yet God created it to be so much better and so much deeper than we’ll ever imagine this side of heaven.