They dominate social media and agitate people: “Almond Moms”. The term came about when Yolanda Hadid, mom to now supermodels Gigi and Bella Hadid, was filmed on a reality series a few years ago (and before the daughters were famous) advising a physically debilitated Gigi to just go chew a few almonds well.
The scene where she keeps cutting her daughter’s cake at her own graduation party until there’s only one bite left has stuck with her, as has the advice that her daughter stop playing volleyball because it makes her shoulders too broad .
“Almond Moms”, i.e. mothers who take excessive care of their daughters’ diet and appearance, are thus another deterrent category of mother failures and join the “Tiger Moms”, who subordinate everything to the career of the little ones and their children with absolute Meet drill and discipline, and the “soccer moms”, i.e. those who revolve purely around the leisure activities of the youngsters. But anyone who has ever been to a U8 game knows that in this country there are noisy reserve coaches on the edge of the soccer field, whose commitment and angry veins could not be greater when it comes to the World Cup title. I still haven’t heard “Plärr-Papas”.
As is well known, raven mother is an expression that only exists in German-speaking countries and which also denigrates innocent mother birds, since they are apparently caring feeders of young birds anyway. While some dads have had to be called “raven fathers”, the counterpart to “mother hen”, another not necessarily appreciative term for women who take care of their offspring too intensively, is still missing in everyday language. I have to admit, when I look around, I don’t see a single Almond Mom. Mothers who put a lot of thought into their children’s diets do, even those who take it upon themselves to carve vegetables into funny faces every day. Children are not necessarily grateful per se and certainly not for mothers who tinker mouths and eyes in cucumber slices. They appreciate it a lot more when dad realizes that he doesn’t enjoy shopping or cooking and spontaneously promotes everyone to Mäci. After all: This is how helicopter parents are finally perceived positively. Because they circle together harmoniously.
