How Smita and Lalita started the We Heart Mom Jokes podcast

lalitadeecomedy Parenting September 27, 2020 | 0

I have this joke that I didn’t know how hard parenting was until I actually had to do it in a pandemic. (It’s one of those jokes that isn’t even all that funny. It’s really just a cry for help, like most comedy.) Recently I decided I wanted to adopt a cat from the local shelter. My sister advised against it: “cats just ignore you and only love you when they want food”. Uuuuh hello? I am stuck at home with a 13-year old. I am used to sentient beings ignoring me and only loving me at mealtimes. Smita has two little ones, a whole nother ballgame. She would probably love nothing more than being ignored once in a while. Remember going to the bathroom all by yourself? She doesn’t. If comedy is borne of tragedy, the comedy podcast is borne of a desperate need to be heard by other grown-ups. In our case: other parents, who deserve to feel that their pain is shared and is nevertheless a cause for great mirth. These are difficult times – we might as well have some fun! The combination of mom and comedian, the “momedian”, is a potent one: at home we get ignored by sulky teenagers or followed around by needy toddlers. At work we get heckled – by our fellow comedians. Self-belief and a faith that this will all be worth it is what gets us through.

Comedy and momming are both incredibly rewarding, for mainly ephemeral reasons. When it is good it is SO good. Which is why we as momedians love to talk about both these parts of our lives: being a mom, and being a comic. We got the sense that all pandemic parents were struggling so hard, and it felt right to put it out there: “YOU ARE DOING GREAT!! And here is some humor to prove it.” The We Heart Mom Jokes podcast is meant to be a light yet compassionate look at pandemic parenting, as seen through the eyes of mom-comedians. We feature a different momedian each episode, and our topics range from door-slamming to frozen peas to fish pedicures to cancer survival. Yup. We cover it all. Because that’s what moms (and all caregivers) do.

comedy kids moms parenting