There's this lady on TikTok who makes little skits about being a stereotypical Midwestern mom (idk if I'm allowed to directly share her handle since that's sort of like promotion). She even has the same name as my mom. Which was funny and cute, but she started collaborating with another creator who has a "cigarette mom" character. And it's about the Midwestern mom sort of taking the other mom's daughter under her wing and helping her out. It's very wholesome and it's made me think about how my mom was totally this person for my neighborhood friend when we were little.

Recently this friend said something to her about how her mom used to dump her at our house all the time for my mom to babysit. And my mom was like "oh no, you were no trouble at all" to which she replied "Janet. I had my own drawer of clothes here. You did my back-to-school shopping." Which is true.

So many of her skits are nearly exact scenes from my childhood. Also my mom 100% loves a good mayo-based "salad" or a Campbell's-soup-based slow cooker meal/casserole (we don't say Hot Dish in Illinois). So these silly skits have become very amusing and sometimes unexpectedly emotional for me to watch.