Inside 'Facebook Wine Mom' culture, where hundreds of thousands of women share memes about wine, coffee, and their kids
My favorite person on Facebook is a 58-year-old woman we'll refer to as Nancy. Nancy is the mother of an old college friend. We became friends on Facebook my sophomore year of college, when Facebook opened up its network of users to include those outside the walls of higher education.
It has been nearly 10 years since Nancy and I became friends, and I look forward to seeing her status updates every day. Why? Because Nancy is a "Facebook Wine Mom."
Okay so you're probably wondering, what or who is a Facebook Wine Mom? But you probably already know one! She's a mom who posts about it "being 5'oclock somewhere!" or "needing an IV of pinot grigio!" She's the 60-year-old equivalent of a high school junior who had their first box of Franzia in someone's basement.
The term was first mentioned on Twitter, according to Topsy, by user @capecodkyrakyra on March 24 of this year. But a few weeks earlier, the definition had been added to UrbanDictionary.com as:
Though there is no mention of social media or Facebook in the UrbanDictionary.com defnition, that's usually where the wine moms unite. But don't be fooled. Being a Facebook Wine Mom isn't just about loving alcohol. Facebook Wine Moms can be found posting memes or updates about needing coffee, vacations, weekends, or ice cream.
Sometimes they post about their kids or husbands.
Other times they post about wishing their kids or husbands would leave them alone.
And their not just using Facebook - you can find wine moms on Instagram and Pinterest, too.
The post below, a promo for a floating wine glass that also can be propped up in the sand, was endlessly shared by the moms I am friends with on Facebook. For days. For weeks! The sharing never, ever, ended. Originally posted by a radio station's page on June 8, the ad haunts me to this day. (Weirdly, radio stations share insane amounts of Facebook Wine Mom content.)
These popular sites serve as a virtual mother's group where moms with a sense of humor vent about day-to-day parenting issues. One "Mom Who Needs Wine" recently asked the group if she was the only one who had ever served her child Oreos for breakfast. (The Answer? Oreos are a kind-of justifiable food group.) On OMG, one mom declared, "it's probably going to be a long summer when you look at a bottle of wine & think about making homemade popsicles with it."
Brian Feldman, writing for The Awl, explains the worst meme the internet has to offer: The Minion memes. And Tech Insider's Molly Mulshine took note that there's no one more obsessed with Minion memes than moms.
