Latest news with #FaridehOlsen
Yahoo
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘A giant parenting group': how online comedians are making a living by laughing about the chaos of kids
Many Instagram-frequenting parents of small children will have seen George Lewis's sketch about two toddlers discussing their feelings of abandonment and relief wrapped in a game of peekaboo. 'It was a normal day, I was just playing with Dad. And then he put his hands in front of his face and he was just gone,' the British comedian and father says in the widely shared video. 'He was behaving so erratically.' Life through a two-year-old's lens – especially in relation to their sleep-deprived parents – is fertile ground for a growing group of online parent comedians whose content is clocking up millions of views. At the heart of the material lies age-old truths: toddlers are sometimes barmy and parenting is often mad. There is a special solidarity among the carers of young children whose days revolve around coaxing vegetables into mouths and bottoms on to potties. In Canada, Farideh Olsen's take on the absurdities of motherhood has one eye firmly on the patriarchy. A sexy husband, her songs suggest, is one who does housework, has therapy and respects women. The 42-year-old singer says it has been a surprise to see how much mothers love watching other mothers 'joking about children and partners and marriage and their love for their children'. 'And, I think that's because a lot of mothering is extremely lonely,' she says. 'You're at home with your kids by yourself, maybe you meet up at a park, but then you don't have the depth of a relationship to joke about your kids.' In the odd three minutes or so that mothers have to check their phones, 'they see something that kind of reflects their life – they find the levity in it,' she says. UK comedian Michael McIntyre was a forerunner when it came to mining laughs from parenting struggles. He told packed theatres well before Covid: 'You never love your children more than when they are unconscious, but still breathing.' Today's troupe of parenting commentators home in on micro moments – a request to cut a toastie exactly in half, the unhinged cackle that follows being asked how the toddler slept, that game of peekaboo – that capture the same sentiment. Farideh thought her music career had been both serious and over before she began writing songs about motherhood. She never considered herself a comedian, nor was she interested in material about parenting, until she had children. While many parenting influencers are female, comedy – including the short-and-sharp social media variety – 'is still very male-dominated', she says. Sydney-based stay-at-home father Sean Szeps' video about the ABCs of parenting – 'A is for 'Absolutely not', B is for 'Brush your teeth'…' delivered with more than a little loopy energy – has almost 40m views on his social media platforms. Last year, all of the 37-year-old's video posts, inspired by his twin seven-year-olds, had a combined 228m views, according to Szeps. Zach Mander, 35, based in Brisbane, has 265,000 TikTok followers and his most popular post has more than 10m views. He has followers all over the world but, as with Szeps, most are in English-speaking countries. They both credit their successes to the pandemic when creative communities on social media took the edge off lockdowns with children. Like their overseas counterparts, they've earned sizeable niche audiences that wouldn't have been accessible to real-world comedians playing clubs with disparate audience members. And they're doing it with disarming honesty. 'Up until that point, my style was incredibly positive, and then the pandemic hit, and I couldn't hold back any more,' says Szeps, who's married to TV presenter and podcaster Josh Szeps. 'Technology,' he says, exploded 'at the same time as we evolved to realising that it would be much better if we were honest about parenthood'. The result was that a 'shit-ton of mums and dads now make an entire career and a living on just sharing what women mostly, but parents overall, have been feeling for decades, which is: it's hilariously hard. It is undeniably difficult. If we can't laugh about it, we're going to sob uncontrollably'. Mander's spoof investigative examinations of Bluey characters, and a video about his children inexplicably losing a slice of pizza in the car (it emerged weeks later 'almost mummified'), are among his biggest hits. 'I've always made content on things that I was experiencing, and it doesn't come much bigger than parenting,' he says. 'I'm amazed we don't talk about it more.' For some, it's really paying off. Szeps, who has a background in social media advertising, has been living off his Instagram account's sponsored content for four years and growth is up 50% year on year. It helps, too, that there will always be new parents. Mander, whose children are two and four, says that because the early years parenting cohort resets about every five years, so does a 'whole lot of people experiencing this for the first time – and those are my cohort'. Viewers are mostly women, both Szeps and Mander say. Szeps, who moved to Australia from America in 2017, has a theory as to why some of the dozen or so male 'power hitters' in the parenting humour space are men talking exclusively to women – and it's down to old-fashioned gender roles. 'We don't want women necessarily to be brutally honest about how hard parenting can be, because that makes us worried for the kids. When a man does it, it's much more accepted,' he says. Parenting jokes sometimes break into the wider satirical space, of course. The Betoota Advocate recently ran a headline: 'Toddler who refuses toast cut the wrong way allegedly ate four servings of vegetable dahl at daycare.' For Szeps, Instagram has become a 'massive, giant parenting group'. 'You still have to navigate the complications. You still have to navigate the perfect parents. You still have to navigate comparison. 'Parenting is so hard, but I don't feel alone in it any more, the way that I felt prior to sharing my experiences online.'
The Guardian
20 hours ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
‘A giant parenting group': how online comedians are making a living by laughing about the chaos of kids
Many Instagram-frequenting parents of small children will have seen George Lewis's sketch about two toddlers discussing their feelings of abandonment and relief wrapped in a game of peekaboo. 'It was a normal day, I was just playing with Dad. And then he put his hands in front of his face and he was just gone,' the British comedian and father says in the widely shared video. 'He was behaving so erratically.' Life through a two-year-old's lens – especially in relation to their sleep-deprived parents – is fertile ground for a growing group of online parent comedians whose content is clocking up millions of views. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. At the heart of the material lies age-old truths: toddlers are sometimes barmy and parenting is often mad. There is a special solidarity among the carers of young children whose days revolve around coaxing vegetables into mouths and bottoms on to potties. In Canada, Farideh Olsen's take on the absurdities of motherhood has one eye firmly on the patriarchy. A sexy husband, her songs suggest, is one who does housework, has therapy and respects women. The 42-year-old singer says it has been a surprise to see how much mothers love watching other mothers 'joking about children and partners and marriage and their love for their children'. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. 'And, I think that's because a lot of mothering is extremely lonely,' she says. 'You're at home with your kids by yourself, maybe you meet up at a park, but then you don't have the depth of a relationship to joke about your kids.' In the odd three minutes or so that mothers have to check their phones, 'they see something that kind of reflects their life – they find the levity in it,' she says. UK comedian Michael McIntyre was a forerunner when it came to mining laughs from parenting struggles. He told packed theatres well before Covid: 'You never love your children more than when they are unconscious, but still breathing.' This article includes content provided by TikTok. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Today's troupe of parenting commentators home in on micro moments – a request to cut a toastie exactly in half, the unhinged cackle that follows being asked how the toddler slept, that game of peekaboo – that capture the same sentiment. Farideh thought her music career had been both serious and over before she began writing songs about motherhood. She never considered herself a comedian, nor was she interested in material about parenting, until she had children. While many parenting influencers are female, comedy – including the short-and-sharp social media variety – 'is still very male-dominated', she says. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Sydney-based stay-at-home father Sean Szeps' video about the ABCs of parenting – 'A is for 'Absolutely not', B is for 'Brush your teeth'…' delivered with more than a little loopy energy – has almost 40m views on his social media platforms. Last year, all of the 37-year-old's video posts, inspired by his twin seven-year-olds, had a combined 228m views, according to Szeps. Zach Mander, 35, based in Brisbane, has 265,000 TikTok followers and his most popular post has more than 10m views. He has followers all over the world but, as with Szeps, most are in English-speaking countries. They both credit their successes to the pandemic when creative communities on social media took the edge off lockdowns with children. Like their overseas counterparts, they've earned sizeable niche audiences that wouldn't have been accessible to real-world comedians playing clubs with disparate audience members. And they're doing it with disarming honesty. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. 'Up until that point, my style was incredibly positive, and then the pandemic hit, and I couldn't hold back any more,' says Szeps, who's married to TV presenter and podcaster Josh Szeps. 'Technology,' he says, exploded 'at the same time as we evolved to realising that it would be much better if we were honest about parenthood'. The result was that a 'shit-ton of mums and dads now make an entire career and a living on just sharing what women mostly, but parents overall, have been feeling for decades, which is: it's hilariously hard. It is undeniably difficult. If we can't laugh about it, we're going to sob uncontrollably'. Mander's spoof investigative examinations of Bluey characters, and a video about his children inexplicably losing a slice of pizza in the car (it emerged weeks later 'almost mummified'), are among his biggest hits. 'I've always made content on things that I was experiencing, and it doesn't come much bigger than parenting,' he says. 'I'm amazed we don't talk about it more.' For some, it's really paying off. Szeps, who has a background in social media advertising, has been living off his Instagram account's sponsored content for four years and growth is up 50% year on year. It helps, too, that there will always be new parents. Mander, whose children are two and four, says that because the early years parenting cohort resets about every five years, so does a 'whole lot of people experiencing this for the first time – and those are my cohort'. This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Viewers are mostly women, both Szeps and Mander say. Szeps, who moved to Australia from America in 2017, has a theory as to why some of the dozen or so male 'power hitters' in the parenting humour space are men talking exclusively to women – and it's down to old-fashioned gender roles. 'We don't want women necessarily to be brutally honest about how hard parenting can be, because that makes us worried for the kids. When a man does it, it's much more accepted,' he says. Parenting jokes sometimes break into the wider satirical space, of course. The Betoota Advocate recently ran a headline: 'Toddler who refuses toast cut the wrong way allegedly ate four servings of vegetable dahl at daycare.' This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. For Szeps, Instagram has become a 'massive, giant parenting group'. 'You still have to navigate the complications. You still have to navigate the perfect parents. You still have to navigate comparison. 'Parenting is so hard, but I don't feel alone in it any more, the way that I felt prior to sharing my experiences online.'
Newsweek
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
Moment Mom Finally 'Let Go' of Hope of Second Baby After 7 Years of Trying
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. A Canadian mother has made the difficult decision to abandon her plans of having a second child after seven years of trying. Farideh Olsen, 42, and her husband Mark, 44, tried for three years to have their second child naturally. For the couple, it was an emotional roller coaster. "It was stressful and emotional to keep trying after so many years, with every cycle to hope and be disappointed, then to find the strength to try again," Olsen told Newsweek. From left: Farideh Olsen wears a pink hoodie; and she stands in cupboard surrounded by storage boxes. From left: Farideh Olsen wears a pink hoodie; and she stands in cupboard surrounded by storage boxes. @ilovefarideh The couple also considered IVF and adoption but decided neither was suitable for their family. Olsen shared the moment she "let go" of her dreams of having a second baby on Instagram (@ilovefarideh). In the reel, she stands in a cupboard filled with clothes and toys the couple had saved for the baby that never came. By the time Olsen decided to let go of all the baby items, her first daughter was 7. "The idea of going back to having a baby felt like it would be too hard," Olsen said. "My first pregnancy was difficult, so we were also worried about what another pregnancy, while being eight years older, would do to me health-wise." With the help of a close friend, Olsen went through the storage boxes containing onesies and shoes to decide what items can go to another pregnant friend or to charity. "I went through those boxes with tears in my eyes. I couldn't have done it alone," Olsen said. "My friend who inherited these baby belongings was so grateful to have all the items she needed to start her journey as a mom. It was bittersweet to be able to provide that for a friend." In the reel, Olsen splits the screen in two—on the right, she is surrounded by the baby items saved up over the years; and, on the left, she looks back on the moment today. In her caption, she wrote that she was proud of her past self for "doing the hard thing." Olsen said that, while going through all the old things was emotional, she felt lighter afterward. "I didn't have to open my cupboard storage and be reminded of the loss of the dream of what my family would look like. I was able to take that space and fill it with new potentials and new dreams." Aleksandra Balazy-Knas, an accredited cognitive behavioral therapist specializing in perinatal mental health and pregnancy after loss, told Newsweek that the kind of grief Olsen is experiencing can be isolating. "It's not just about the absence of another child, but also the loss of future dreams, imagined family dynamics, and the emotional investment made over years of trying," Balazy-Knas said. "There's often a silent mourning of baby clothes kept, names chosen, or hopes pinned on a sibling bond that may never come to be." Balazy-Knas, who supports clients to explore their identity beyond fertility, explained that the path to healing involves recognizing this grief as valid. "Acceptance doesn't mean forgetting the dream; it means learning to live alongside the loss with compassion," she said. The reel, which has received more than 255,000 views, was met with love and support from other Instagram users. "This must have been SO hard. Proud of you for doing this hard thing, and for being vulnerable enough to share," one user wrote. "Thanks for sharing. This video makes me feel less alone," another commented. Now, Olsen said she often has to correct herself from saying "my kids" as she adjusts to life being a mom to an only child. "It's easier to divide and conquer when there are two of you and only one child," Olsen added. "We know that we can afford an education for our daughter, and saving for retirement will not be as challenging. "While my preference would have been to have a second child, there is peace in acceptance that it wasn't meant to be."
