HR Mothers I’d Like to Follow

My cat, Roxy, is mesmerized by the M.I.L.F. $ video.

If you don’t know anything about it — and why would you because you have taste? — here’s the description from Wikipedia:

Set in a candy-colored town called “Milfville,” it features Fergie with a group of famous mothers, including Kim Kardashian West, Chrissy Teigen, Alessandra Ambrosio, Ciara, Gemma Ward, Tara Lynn, Devon Aoki, Angela Lindvall, Isabeli Fontana, Amber Valletta, and Natasha Poly as lingerie-clad 1950s housewives.

Later in the video, Fergie is shown waitressing at a soda shop, teaching a classroom full of rowdy, letterman jacket-wearing teens, and taking a bath in a tub filled with milk. The video ends with several mothers each shooting their own “Got Milf?” ads. Male models Jon Kortajarena and Jordan Barrett appear as a milkman and a bartender, respectively. Ambrosio’s daughter Anja and Teigen’s daughter Luna make appearances.

In the video, the milkman’s truck says “Milfman – Moms I’d Like To Follow.” Fergie said: “Changing the acronym [“MILF: Moms I’d Like to F**k”] to Moms I’d Like To Follow is about empowering women who do it all. They have a career, a family, and find the time to take care of themselves and feel sexy. With a wink of course.“

Yeah, uh, barf.

I read enough mommy blogs to know that commentary about motherhood from mothers in the midst of being a mom is tricky. It’s like asking Donald Rumsfeld what he thought about the Iraq war while it was still happening.

“Death has a tendency to encourage a depressing view of war.”
“Don’t blame the boss. He has enough problems.”
“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don’t know we don’t know.”

Jesus, that guy was a moron.

However, without the benefit of time or emotional distance, all insights are tough. Moms generally don’t have the benefit of time or emotional distance because you’re never not a mom and there’s zero emotional distance.

Fergie’s attempt to talk about motherhood wasn’t great, but she made me think of all the fabulous mothers in HR that I follow who are role models for both parenthood and HR. There are some good ones out there who are authentic, honest, and share their incredible experiences with the world.

If you want some mothers to follow in HR, here’s my list. (Note that some of these accounts might be private. Don’t be jerks, but ask to follow if you’re interested in following business professionals who are immersed in both motherhood and HR.)

susanlamotte
tiffanykuehl
jennarosehenley
jeanneachille
jensmack
czarinaofHR
MarySlayter
BethWolfe
thebuzzonHR
onthe10brink
franny0
LisaRosend
gethiredbycat
chavrilla
jennydevaughn
stacyzapar

I could do this for hours.

You won’t see HR ladies pouring milk all over themselves and pretending like it’s a feminist statement, but you may find some working mothers you’d like to follow.

Enjoy!