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Most of us grow up and assign our parents to the “lame” category until that magic moment when we start living on our own and realize just how much work laundry and a moderately clean house takes. It also tends to be the time we notice that our parents, by definition, have had longer lives than us and are more interesting than we initially thought.
A netizen posted “give me your mom lore” and people from across the internet gathered to share interesting stories about their mothers. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own bits of “lore” in the comments section down below.
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#1
My mom was the first person to give skin to skin contact to one of the first babies born with AIDS in the US. Everyone else was in hazmat suits, and she saw that baby and decided it needed some loving. So she did it.
I've tried to carry that with me. Miss you, mom.
Rafael 6 hours ago
This is amazing, but after covid, I try not to be too harsh with the people in the very beginning that thought it could spread through air or simple contact. Takes a while for the science to be clear on how safe it is/isn't. Doesn't excuse the people that just wanted to be bigots, though, fúck them.
RELATED:
#2
My mom did a sit out against the Vietnam War as a high schooler. She’s been to more No Kings protests than I can count. She also was a single mom who used to work at Kmart and went back to school and got her Master’s Degree. She quilts advocacy pieces in her spare time. Top notch.
MrLiesegang 7 hours ago
I wish people like this were the one in power - world wide - and not a bunch of tantrum toddlers
#3
During the last solar eclipse (2024) my mom was working as a nurse in a mental health ward. She bought solar eclipse glasses for all of the patients, and took everyone outside to see the solar eclipse. She also always decorated for holidays and brought in little Easter bunny baskets for everyone. (Now she’s working in a retirement home and she still gives her patients so much love and care)
#4
My mom was the first person in our family who decided to get a divorce and then started living her best life 🩷 mom I miss you, I’m proud of you, and I’m in tears
#5
My mom made our basement the NAMFREL "headquarters" during the 1986 snap election called by Ferdinand Marcos. The walls were a light pink/peach (it was the 80s guys) so its code name was The Pink Room. People would come in with their unofficial counts and tally on the billiard table. The NAMFREL count helped propel forward the People Power Revolution.
#6
My Mom was a brilliant course developer for the IRS, a loving mother of four, who also volunteered as a voting registrar in our small TX town. She’d be appalled by what women are going thru right now.
#7
my mom smuggled antibiotics to an injured guerilla fighter during the salvadoran civil war! her dental work has also stood up to the test of time, with random former patients coming up to her to show her when we have gone back and visited
#8
My mom arrived at a century bike race only to realize she had forgotten to pack her clip in shoes.. she rode the entire 100 miles in Birkenstocks. Afterward the race she found out she was pregnant.
#9
My mom was a chef at a women and children’s homeless shelter in southern Arizona. Most were running from DV. Some undocumented, having escaped gang violence and political oppression from their countries. She was a safe space, teaching them skills they could use to feed their families and get jobs. She passed about 5 years ago. My grandmother recently told me that my mom delivered a baby, right there at the mission. I am so proud of my mommy ♥️
#10
My mom became a nurse (RN) yesterday, at the tender age of 65
#11
My mom was the first African American prima ballerina with the Atlanta Ballet.
#12
My mom did her Masters thesis on empathy and much later, the community college where she taught Nursing for decades made a scholarship in her name when she “retired.” She unretired to teach one class a week when they pretty much begged, and she’s still a student favorite.
#13
My mom ensured her family (parents and siblings) had food, and drinking water during the war. She risked her life everyday going out in search of food even though [explosives] were dropping and bullets were flying.
#14
My mom is a professor of Psychology/Department Chair at her university, graduating with her PhD at 40 years old (AFTER achieving two Master's and a Bachelor's, while also raising two kids).
On top of that, she cares SO MUCH about everything. Which can be A LOT sometimes, but she works somewhere with a large Hispanic student population and is 100% ready at all times to throw hands to protect her DACA students
#15
My mom was a home health nurse in Texas & (despite not having much money herself) would regularly buy groceries, fans, or little portable AC units for her low income patients
#16
My mom was a special education teacher for 30 years. She truly loved and adored her students. She taught in an impoverished area so she was always buying them clothes, combing their hair, buying them Christmas gifts, and even had them spend the night with us. She was truly called to do what she did and I try my best to carry that in my heart.
She was such a loving and giving person. I miss her so so much.
#17
My mom lost her fiancé in the Vietnam war at age 18. For the next few years she worked as a volunteer nurse at Valley Forge army hospital, assisting in the para and quad amputee ward. She went to peace marches and was an advocate for Black equality. She also danced with the USO, on bandstand and was at Woodstock.
She’s the coolest 79yr old out there.
#18
My mom started the first Planned Parenthood and Muscular Dystrophy chapters in Spokane County.
#19
When my mom passed, one of my friends wrote a message to me about how grateful she was for my mom’s care after she had an abortion. She stayed at my place to recover (it was my sophomore year of college). My mom made my friend her favorite meal: mac n cheese. My mom wasn’t emotionally nurturing but she truly lives by her ideals: anti-racist, feminist, and always had gay friends around (in the 80s and 90s). That helped me, her Gen X daughter, come out.
#20
My mom passed 30 years ago when I was young. After recently sharing stories with my sister we figured out that my mom was secretly voting as a democrat to cancel out my republican father’s vote. She never let us in the voting booths with her and would say she voted for Mickey Mouse. She was a brilliant minded woman who turned down an acceptance into Mensa.
#22
My mom's mom used to have a best friend that was a Rockette. In the early 40s, one day when the friend was sick, my Nana took her clothes and performed at Radio City secretly in her place.
#23
My mother worked her way from a clerk to the Head of Business Admin for an XL company with no college degree.
Her job is definitely the most important thing to her.
She has a husband, three daughters, and 5+ grandsons.
#24
My mom (white) defied her family/small rural town and married my dad (black), standing by her own self 2 days after MLK was assassinated. She faced overt hate/racism, was denied housing and service, and held up at borders bc she and my dad were married. She then raised a son who was valedictorian and earned 2 Ivy League degrees, & a daughter who became a brown ballerina and Dancer Emeritus;all while working full time & serving her church & community. That was only the first 1/2 of her life.
#25
Me and mother used to live at Walter Reed, the worlds largest medical center located at our nation’s capitol. Just years before her passing, my mother (SSGT Army), pushed to get TWO playgrounds built for me and my sister due to lack of recreational options for children at the facility. 10/10 playgrounds. My mother got bombed in Iraq and handicapped, after a heavy fight, she was one of the only three graduates of the Army's first Basic Stand Alone Common Core and was back walking! Rest easy Renee
#26
My mom went on national news detailing her experience with appraisal discrimination after allowing a white man to sit in during said appraisal, nearly doubling the value of her home. Also side note She worked tirelessly to create a more seamless expungement process for non violent offenses here in Indianapolis. Many times little to no cost to do so. Allowing people a true fresh start after paying their debt to society
#27
My mom is an artist! She’s done a lot of frescos and murals in the southeastern U.S., her most well-known work is the trans America dome in Charlotte, North Carolina
#29
When my mom was in middle school in the 60s or 70s she defied the rule of girls having to wear skirts or dresses. She wore pants to school one day with her friends, it caused an uprising, and girls were allowed to wear pants at that school from then on.
#30
My mom’s water broke and contractions started with me.. but she had just gotten home and still had to bring up a 30lb bag of dog food to her 3rd floor apartment then walk her 3 Rottweilers. So she did all that, and then she went to the hospital. And that was just Day Zero!
#33
My mom, not the nurses, noticed that I was going septic and that my temperature was too high when I had a septic jugular clot at 17. She hunted down ice packs from the nursing stations, made them come take my temp (105F), and got me transferred to the ICU. I really think she saved my life. I miss her so much today.
#34
My mom is a retired social worker.
She was part of the team that raided the FLDS camp in Utah, arrested Warren Jeffs, and saved a bunch of girls and women.
#35
My mom wore her Army dress uniform to the Marine Corps Ball she attended with my dad. She's a BAMF.
#36
My mom kept as much whimsy possible alive for me as a kid. She made sure the "tooth fairy" left money and a trail of glitter. She had "monster spray" for the closet. She warded off the "tree trolls" in my grandmother's backyard. She would leave little notes in my backpack and in my lunchbox every day. She fed everyone who walked through our door. She was my first best friend.
#37
My mom has worked in elementary schools for over 15 years I think, as a 1:1 aide and in aftercare, and those kids love her so much. She spent my whole childhood accommodating for disabilities we didn't even know I had yet. She worked her butt off to give me a great home school education despite having no higher education or training herself. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
#38
Bon Jovi hit on my mom in a NJ night club, before he was famous, and told him, “your band [is bad] and you’re never gonna make it.”
#39
My Mom worked for a university in the 70’s, and when computers came in, she taught herself how to code — only using books. She ended up being a programmer analyst (with no degree), writing all the programming for the university. Retired from there a few years ago.
#40
My mom was a migrant worker who would go on to become president of her local LULAC chapter and then eventually a community organizer volunteering on a political campaign in her golden years. Really proud of her. ❤️
#41
My mom was a hospital pharmacist. In the 90’s she was diagnosed with breast cancer after finding a lump during a self-exam that did not show up on her recent mammogram. Y’all she prepared her own chemo in the pharmacy, clocked out, and brought it downstairs to receive it. She was president of the PTA that year too but above all a survivor
#42
My mom’s mother passed when she was 7. Her dad remarried a few months later and she had a rough! Childhood. She’s 17/19 kids. Also the only one of her siblings to graduate college. She has a Masters in accounting. She’s worked in non profits for close to 2 decades and is currently a CFO with the North Florida Council.
#43
My mom was in a hippie band in the 60's and 70's called "up with people" and she burned her bra along with others to fight the oppression women have felt for centuries. She is also a DV and CSA survivor. She may not be perfect, but she is cool.
Cathleen Cummings 10 hours ago
Very cool, but "Up with People" was definitely NOT a hippie band!
#44
My mom worked at McDonald’s for 17years, even after graduating college. Then worked in international business, her dept relocated, she was layed off for several years. She finally got a job in the file room of a college. She then went back to school and got her mba at 46, worked hard and diligently; got us out the hood and now she is the vice president and cfo of that same college
#45
My mother was one of the first Head Start teachers. She'd take me to the Projects with her on her social worker visits. 1966-1967. She wanted me to be acquainted with all kinds of people and in the days of segregation, that wasn't easy.
#46
My mom discovered yoga in the '60s, during a difficult divorce, at a time when women had very few rights. She went on to be one of the first yoga and meditation teachers in the Midwest, teaching at universities, hospitals, and rec centers. Gurus and spiritual leaders traveled from India to teach her at our home. Back then, my siblings and I hated it. She was widely ridiculed for her beliefs, but long before yoga was mainstream, she was ahead of her time.
#47
Mom 1 is the director of libraries at MIT and Mom 2 was an intern for one of the ADA lobbying groups and has been working in disability advocacy ever since. Also they were planning their wedding the year Prop 8 (banning gay marriage in California) passed and said were getting married anyways
#48
My mom is in Ripley’s Believe It or Not because her and her siblings have multiple shared birthdays without any twins/triplets/etc. they’re the top one. Later, my mom’s youngest sister just missed sharing one of the dates by one day. (Also, if the record had been done later on, I could’ve possibly also been in it as I also share a birthday with a cousin)
#49
My mother was the private secretary for the governor of Mississippi in 1962-64. When desegregation was happening, the governor would speak with Bobby Kennedy often. Once, she accidentally hung up on him while putting him on hold. Mortified, she interrupted a meeting the governor was in to whisper to him what she had done. His nonchalant response, "Honey, he'll call back."
#50
My mom was the president and CEO of the Christopher Reeve foundation in the early and mid-2000s. She met him when she was working at a rehab hospital in NJ when he had his accident, she was the one who suggested one of their doctors go see him in Virginia immediately after. She also lobbied in DC for stem cell research with Hillary Clinton. She was at the foundation when both Reeve (and, later, his wife) passed.
#51
My mom was working drive-thru and heard a guy being mean to the new kid on the line. She dismissed the kid, came to the window, and told him to go to McDonald's because "they serve clowns over there."
#52
My mom has a TBI & wasn’t expected to regain independence. She raised me, earned 3 degrees, & made me believe anything is possible
#53
My mom overcame massive poverty and childhood trauma to build and live an extremely full life. She traveled the world, she took care of lots of animals and kids in need, she always danced her butt off at any wedding she attended, she taught herself how to ride horses and grow a garden and ski all in later adulthood. She LIVED
#55
At 19, mom paid for the birth and adopted a baby who needed her. With her 3rd grade education, she raised 6 kids, became a widow at 57. She’ll be 85 on Wednesday and dementia is taking over. But my heart has the best of her. ❤️
#56
My mom was part of the racial integration of Birmingham Alabama in the 60s, 7th grade— went to an all “colored school”
#57
My mom broke college wheelchair racing records and would have gone to the Paralympics if she hadn't been poor
#58
my mom was the 19th first commercial pilot in history! she helped introduce other women into what was at the time an incredibly sexist industry 💗 i love women
#59
My mom was arrested and jailed for 3 months after her boast capsized at 16. She was arrested for trying to escape the Vietnamese government.
#60
My mom broke every high score at a pinball arcade in her 60s. Turns out she had been stuck in her neighborhood as a teen during the Lebanese civil war and spend months playing the one pinball machine in the cafe next door just to be out of the house, and apparently never lost the knack.
#61
My mom and her two sisters (circled) are on the cover of this book because they participated in Freedom Summer and Civil Rights Movement marches in rural Mississippi. This book is still around but it has a newer cover now.
#62
Found out my mom ate the million dollar M&M back in the day and didn’t care. When I asked her why didn’t she look at her package when she saw it at the M&M was funny colored, and her response was “I was hungry.”
#63
my mom was one of the first white women to have a biracial child in a small, southern town. she survived many attempts on her life to later become an elected official & stopped voter fraud in the city, when those running for office were turning in absentee ballots of dead people. she's got so much lore..
#64
My mom was in Europe when they were filming “European Vacation.” Chevy Chase jumped into a revolving door with her. Stopped it. Stole her gelato and carried on. She just laughed about it. You can see the reflection of her red coat in a hotel lobby scene. Not quite as epic but it makes me smile.
#65
I’m the mom. My lore is that while active military and traveling, *someone* at a certain base refused to register my newborn baby so she could get vaccines (wish we weren’t traveling but we were, cause military). I ended up throwing a huge Stapler at the *someone*, who was the one refusing, and he ducked. No one defended him and they immediately registered my baby into the base hospital. Someone told me no one liked him as they were registering me
#67
My mom hasnt done anything fancy like some of these moms but she’s fully feral in the best way. After she became a young widow she fought breast cancer and had a stroke while als raising two kids and traveling the world (on a middle class salary) and is an Ironman
#68
In 1989 my mom came to my third grade class in a full Santa suit for our class party. She is goals.
#69
My mom was a big time groupie in her younger years. She followed Heart on tour, went on a "date" with Eddie Van Halen, was cornered in the bathroom by Gene Simmons, and fumbled the bag with Greg Allman. She saw 100+ concerts in her lifetime and had men throwing themselves at her feet. She even caused a car accident walking down the street with my aunt. My mom was a smoke show. Could have been an Allman.
#71
My mom worked on Wall Street, had her own crafts business, and was a trained and certified mediator and loved me deeply. Rest well, Mommy, Adrienne Murphy.
#72
My mum was the first person in the UK to be pregnant with officially diagnosed coeliac disease. Previously they thought the disease negatively impacted your fertility. As her and my father’s third ‘happy accident’ child I think we nailed down the coffin on that one.
#73
My mom's street name was Bambi. I never knew why. In jail it was barbie. She robbed a jewelry store and only got caught because my sister worked at the police station at the front desk and recognized her hair from behind (snitch.. it saved her life tho). She had 'pray hard' tattooed on her knuckles in olde English font. She had 'tenacious' tattooed and then covered up somewhere. She was married three times. She was a Taurus. She loved hard and described herself as a watermelon
#74
My mom birthed 17 children with my dad. I’m number 17 🤗. She was also a college marble champion
#75
My moms dad passed when she was 5. She was the youngest of 5 sisters and got married at 18 to an older man she met at age 16. She became my mom at 19. She never got to be carefree.
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