When you think about the word "mother," it usually comes with a sense of love and warmth. Unfortunately, not all mothers evoke these feelings, like the so-called momma bears. These are the moms who, like the animals they are compared to, are very fierce when it comes to protecting their practices, opinions, and most importantly, their young.
Momma bears are fiercely devoted to their babies, even to the point of getting aggressive when it comes to protecting them. However, being a momma bear may not be as good as it seems.
In fact, there is a line about them that once crossed, turns protectiveness into meanness or bullying. For example, there seems to be no lack of topic to talk about these days, and moms are fighting it off online as they become increasingly judgmental about other moms whose practices differ from their own.
Popsugar noted that the mean moms are cropping up on the internet and are actually becoming cyberbullies in internet discussion groups. "In quite a few cases, moms are being very rude, disrespectful, inconsiderate, not understanding, and even plain out nasty to other moms who disagree with their opinions," a member of All About Mom community noted.
The Huffington Post noted some of these things that parents bully each other with include breastfeeding vs. formula, unmedicated birth vs. epidural use, crying out vs cuddling, co-sleeping vs. crib, and even working in or out of the home. Moms have to accept that what works for them may not necessarily work for others.
The problem is that being indignant about others for what they do, and in that case, mothers, without realizing it, can be mean girls. What's even worse is that Bullies Be Gone already called the consequences: mean moms raise mean girls (or children).
Momma bear is probably not as mean as in the movies kind of way, but as noted, different doesn't mean better or worse, it just means different. Parents have to understand and accept that.