Magazine Tells Moms To Lay Off Each Other Already

Crisis alert: America’s experiencing a wave of mom-on-mom judgment. Moms can’t walk down the street without getting eyeballed and evaluated by other mothers, and they can’t resist doing the same in turn to other moms they encounter. It’s gotten so bad that soon we may be able to replace the word “judge” with the word “mom,” used in this case as a verb meaning “to judge.” Who’s going to put a stop to it?

Citing a survey that found a full 90% of mothers claim that they judge other mothers, TODAY and Redbook magazine have declared today “No Judgment Day” for moms. Organizers say that the benefit for moms is twofold— not only do they get to free up the mental space they’d normally reserve for judging and use it for other things like current events or how surprisingly good the new Rihanna album is, but moms also get to live an entire day free from the worry that every other mother thinks they’re doing a shit job of mothering. In theory.

Of course, one day of abstaining from judgement isn’t going to fix our rampant backseat mothering problem, and mothers aren’t the only ones who judge women with children. Childless people do it, too! (If you don’t believe me, the next time a woman with more than one small child in tow gets on the bus or train, take a gander at your fellow passengers and count how many judgefaces they throw out, especially if one or more of the children is crying or unkempt). But it can’t hurt for a group that’s subject to unending and often unfair scrutiny to have a day off from the gauntlet of each other’s opinions. Even if it’s only a half day off.

Redbook Editor-in-Chief Jill Herzig hopes No Judgment Day will at least open people’s eyes to the possibility that maybe everyone is doing their best and that maybe we should just cut ourselves and each other some slack. She says,

We are all juggling balls. We all have strengths and weaknesses. Let’s take one day to admit we are all not perfect.

Because today is No Judgment Day for moms, even though I am not a mom, I am working very hard to stop myself from judging Herzig on her use of the hilarious phrase “We are all juggling balls.”

In the meantime, moms, feel free to Britney Spears out. After all, ’tis the season.