Selfish Mother

[maytoseptember]

I think “unschooling” is yet another parenting approach that is applauded when you’re middle class, but feral and neglectful when you’re working class.

 

[maytoseptember]

I used to like Molly and the brand, and (I’m embarrassed to say) I bought a couple of sweatshirts, albeit in sales. But as time went on she seemed less and less relatable to me - she’s obviously quite posh, wealthy, massively privileged, former career as a newspaper journalist, etc. She tries to make out she’s a bit of a hippy, but it’s a very monied, white middle class kind of bohemian hippy... yawn.

I have to say, the declaration that all mothers really should be able to bugger off to Ibiza on their own is the last straw for me. I’m lucky if I can bugger off to my local Costa on my own.

Isn’t the Selfish Mother brand a bit... flaky, too? What happened to the blog? And then the blog was re-launched on Insta as a “zine”, and that seemed to fizzle out really quickly too. The shop recently closed and the online shop is constantly throwing out discount codes and sales. I wouldn’t wish the closure of a business on anyone, but I do feel like Selfish Mother rode the first wave of Instamum success and now the market is saturated with slogan tees and jumpers.

 

[Tothemoonandback]

Cannot see a thread for Molly Gunn aka Selfish Mother? So sorry if there is one, I’ve done quite a few word searches

Molly’s suggestion today that us mum’s should have “a night or few away” on our own (she’s in Ibiza) has left me no choice today but to start a thread.

She’s tried to make the suggestion relatable by saying the few nights away could “even” just be in the UK! Ha. The idea that I could just have a few nights away in a posh hotel in Ibiza or “even” just the Uk is depressingly not in any way a possibility. Thanks for the tip though Molly!

 

[hattie20]

I know! Why isn’t her husband/her parents saying “what the fuck are you doing?”

Fuck knows. Maybe they know she’s a complete twat. They are probably all
just like her though and think it’s a marvellous carry on.

I think she’s either crazy, or she’s spinning a line to sound oh so cool and has plenty of cash to keep her going.

There are a lot of people like her though. From moneyed backgrounds who just go about doing shit like this without a care in the world.

A mum from a council estate pulling her kids out of school and renting a caravan in Skeggy and acting a bit unhinged (saying shes low on cash, begging for freebies) would cause out rage and concern.

Middle class Molly, fucking off across the world and begging for freebies by flexing the “I was a journalist” angle is cool and inspirational (to other idiots).

 

[DramaHun]

She drives me bonkers along with all the other "mama merch" bellends. The privilege is unbelievable

 

[snarksnark]

She really is the Selfish Mother, isn’t she? Dressing up what is essentially a trip to provide content for her journalism as a ‘life experience’ for her kids.

 

[Mochalatte]

The problem I have is I honestly don’t know if it’s genuine concern or virtue signalling. In my opinion, she’s lost all credibility

I see it as totally virtue signalling- imagine lying on a beach with a cocktail in hand posting about Palestine

 

[xLJ03x]

Well tattle tea drinkers……my friend lives in the same town as her. The rumours were that one of them had been unfaithful but were giving it another go. She now has heard, via the jungle drums, a bit more to the story. Shall we say lets change the name to Selfish Wife!!!!!!!! Or maybe Selfish Wife who was caught in the act by Dopey Husband with Dopey Husband’s not so best friend!!!!!!!
*disclaimer, this is all allegedly and have no actual proof but apparently it’s quite well known in the streets.

 

[meetmeinthemiddle]

I've never found her content particularly interesting, and she often used others content to bolster her own - she was a magpie content creator, if you like. I remember when Selfish Mother began, you had to pay to post your content there, that disappeared shortly after.

She is also ex London and I do think many of these people high tail it out saying they'll never be back and then try to recreate a London life wherever they are and that just doesn't happen, because, erm, it's not London.

Oh and you'd never see me in a sweater saying MOTHER on it ..my harassed face tells you that ...

 

[Ralphiegirl]

I literally just read her post and couldn’t believe it - surely your PR people would be like ‘now is not the time to shit on your remaining ‘insta’ fans’ and scream out for attention... omg - I need to go into crisis management for these ladies

 

[Housewife34]

Is she travelling around with the kids or just living in Bali?
What’s the point of staying in one place for three months - yes, it’s hot and different - but why not just have a holiday and let the kids go back to school and see their dad.
She’s desperate to be seen as bohemian for the sake of rekindling a career in journalism.

 

[Sweettutu]

“For reasons outlined on my Tattle Thread I am pulling the mama merch clothing. The meeting space/how to be an influencer lessons have both tanked which leaves me with turnkey beauty, complete with cheap shitty labelling and now small batch gin, distilled, not locally, but by a small distillery in East London, a place we should have, frankly, never left. Could be worse I could be MOD. Call me for a copy of the how to-influence-zine, hun. I’ll gift it to you”

 

[Sweettutu]

These mama brands don’t last cos the founders run out of steam/move on. It’s like hurrah for gin - one trick pony. Toddlers are mental. Parenting young children is exhausting. Then the kids grow up and it’s all irrelevant. Cue new shiny bunch of young mums with young mum brands. Parent apparel and SM lost it by focussing one one “set” of instamums when they should really be looking to the future. Spot the next influencers who have recently had a baby. When you have a newborn, a 2 year old might as well be a teenager. Get networking molly. You need a new market and they’re 5 years younger.

 

[GAC37]

Just found this thread. Urgh this woman is vile. She thinks she’s so radical and funny but she’s basically a parody of a typical Home Counties wine mum . And the travel grid page so she can get some free holidays.

 

[Mochalatte]

Starting this reply with ‘Ha’ just says it all about her.

And she was sneaky enough to delete the post about no summer holiday- she’s a sly bitch. Also £30 a day budget- eh I don’t live on £30 a day here?

also she wrote an article about how to have a happy marriage? She’s nearly divorced him god knows how many times?

 

[InstaLurk]

Yup, she’s another one who is completely tone deaf. Literally a selfish mother.

 

[GreyWolf]

Interesting, after she shared her little darlings leaving state school and starting at a very expensive private school.

I also never got my head round her irritating store. Genuinely thought it was The F***MyLifestore and thought the Y was a question. Just has a look and see the amazing zine which I had to unfollow didn’t last longer. It was awful. My sister has a mama sweatshirt which is very embarrassing for the family as a whole.

 

[Panstickpinkie]

I feel for the kids who’ve been taken away from their friends, they must be missing out on so much. As well as not seeing their dad! She really is a selfish mother.

 

[maytoseptember]

She never sticks at anything. What happened to the weekly blogzine on insta? That lasted about three months. I also think she used to do some kind of mama retreat - that seems to have gone by the wayside too.

I said similar upthread. She’s so flaky. The blog seems to have fallen by the wayside. The “Insta-zine” crashed and burned rapidly. She just can’t seem to stick at anything.

The Bruton shop must have haemorrhaged money. When it opened, I (speaking as someone who knows NOTHING about running a business) I thought it seemed risky to open a bricks and mortar shop in a fairly obscure town in the Westcountry. They gave away free Prosecco and wasted £££ on a massive, self-indulgent mural. When you have a successful online business, it just seemed mad to pour money into opening a physical shop. It was so unnecessary.

But I think, maybe, running an online shop just wasn’t very glamorous, and Molly was bored and isolated and enticed by the idea of this fabulous, buzzy “space” where she could host talks and events and invite Insta-Royalty to come and share their wisdom with similarly white, monied, middle class women. It was never going to be sustainable.

And now I don’t think the online shop is going to see Christmas. The brand/celeb collaborations seem to have dried up (whether that’s because Molly couldn’t drum up any interest or... got bored of doing them, I don’t know). I don’t say that with any glee whatsoever. It was a really successful business and they didn’t seem to plan for the fact that, once someone has one MOTHER jumper, they aren’t going to buy one every season.

 

[Sweettutu]

I unfollowed after she lost her shit over a MN thread that complained that the “mother”/“mama” tips made her feel shit (suffering infertility).