Explain Like I'm 35: What is an Almond Mom? (May 21, 2023)

These days, the shape of women's bodies goes in and out of fashion faster than they can create plastic surgeries to replicate them. Through it all, however, one constant remains: they will be treated better if they're skinny in the right places.

It sucks, not least because it contributes to body image issues in the majority of the female population. Point and shame tactics do little to help those who have weight-based health problems, but even post body positivity movement they refuse to go away.

Pressure about our weight is bad enough from the outside world, but it hits even harder at home. It's something that millions of Gen Z and millennial women had to grow up with, and now they have a phrase to describe it: the almond mom.

The term is inspired by former Real Housewife Yolanda Hadid, who famously responded to daughter Gigi's complaints of feeling weak during a juice cleanse by telling her to slowly chew two almonds. As clips of her appearing to encourage disordered eating habits in her two daughters have continued to circulate TikTok, so has this descriptive term that many have started to use to describe their own moms, and to create comedy skits around.

In case it wasn't already clear, the almond mom is defined as someone with an obsessive fixation on a 'healthy' lifestyle that revolves around exercising at every possible moment, a restrictive diet, and pointed attempts to share it with her usually female children.

Controversy surrounding the term has arisen with a recent viral TikTok. In it, two sisters go out for a meal with their mom and document her reactions to the food and everything she does (or doesn't) eat. It's had some people saying that it is unfair to make fun of the almond mom's discomfort when she has a problem, and many more making the counter argument of the fact that she has probably tried to push that attitude onto her kids.

With wellness culture continuing to make a questionable impact on social media, it's inevitable that the backlash was going to be just as impactful. Generational trauma comes in many forms, and just one kind of tiny snack.

Posted by Ally Perry