Mom Chat

The Group Chat With Other Moms: My Lifeline and Comedy Club

Behind every functioning mom is a group chat doing the real work. Mine is the reason I'm still standing.

It's not a cute chat. It's not “what are we bringing to the potluck” energy. It's 2 AM voice notes. It's “GUYS. He did WHAT.” It's screenshots of unhinged coparenting texts with the caption “do NOT let me reply to this.” It's someone sending a meme at exactly the moment you're crying in the pantry, and suddenly you're laughing instead.

These women have seen me at my worst — and I mean WORST. Postpartum. Mid-divorce-energy. The era where I texted “is it normal to hide from your own children” and three people immediately replied “yes, pantry or car?” like it was a triage question. Because it was.

Here's what the group chat actually is: it's the village, digitized. Our grandmothers had front porches and party lines. We have read receipts and reaction emojis. Same medicine, different delivery system.

The rules of a good mom group chat, as established by hard experience: what happens in the chat stays in the chat. No screenshots leave the chat. Everyone gets grace on their worst day. And at least one person must always be available for emergency meme deployment.

I tell the women I coach: find your people. Not the perfect moms with the curated feeds — the real ones. The ones who'll tell you your kid's behavior is normal AND tell you you're doing great in the same breath. The ones who laugh with you, not at you.

To my group chat girls: you know who you are. You've earned your place in my will and my wedding party, in that order.

Tag your group chat lifeline below — or just tell me your chat's name. Ours is unprintable.