For ages, the stereotypical Jewish mother has been depicted as overprotective, smothering, and nagging. Think George Costanza’s mother, Estelle, on Seinfeld.
Judging from the tweets with the hashtag #TextsFromMomTuesday, those people not only exist—they use iPhones.
The hashtag, curated by @JewBoyProblems, highlights the best (or possibly the worst?) text conversations between kids and their overly loving Jewish mothers. Although he asked to remain anonymous, @JewBoyProblems spoke to the Daily Dot via email about the 140-character phenomenon.
He started tweeting his overbearing texts from his mother around a year ago. Her messages ranged needy to remedial, like asking for computer help, but most were well received by his friends. In turn, he encouraged his more than 13,000 followers to submit their own text conversations.
“I’ve found that #TextsFromMomTuesday engages my followers since they contribute, [retweet], favorite, and share hilarious conversations,” he said.
On average, the Twitter account receives between 10 to 15 submissions each week and retweets the funniest ones. A search on Topsy reveals around 100 tweets were submitted in the past month, with the most retweeted one from a nervous mother asking why her daughter was one minute late.
The popularity of that particular post is simple: It captures the crazed neurosis of a Jewish mother over something so minute as a minute. @JewBoyProblems says that while tweets don’t have a “special rubric” to follow, they should at least be retweet-worthy.
“They are merely what make me laugh and what I think will make others laugh as well,” he said.
But the texts aren’t merely making the rounds on Twitter anymore. He recently launched a Tumblr blog to archive his favorite tweets, inspired by the user-submitted exchange documented below.
Here’s a look at some of the other highlights from #TextFromMomTuesdays.
Photo via YouTube