Georgia mom blogger and influencer Katie Bower has really stepped in it this time. Her blog, Bower Power, talks about life with five kids — four boys and a baby girl. Bower earns all kinds of free swag from this full-time gig (you know, like Maytag home appliances).
Now, we’re not hating on the swag (sure, we’d snag a washer and dryer too), but we are puzzling over her recent Instagram post (now conveniently archived) in which she “celebrates” her one son’s birthday by whining about his lack of likes on her social media.
Yes. Really. Buckle in.
Bower’s Instagram “birthday” message to her son was just your basic mom gush at the beginning [son’s name kept anonymous here]:
“Thankful for [redacted] today. My [redacted] was just the best baby….cuddly and easy…a hard toddler…always on the move and slow to talk which led to lots of crying….and one of the most helpful and sweet hearted little boys. He is quiet except when he’s not….overflowing with unique personality. He hates the car and is a complete homebody. He loves art and sports and is quick with a joke. He loves organizing and quality time and says one day he is gonna be a daddy to one hundred babies. And when he hugs and kisses you, you believe it.”
But then Bower swerved. Hard. She complained that her son’s photos never earn “as many likes” as the pics of her other kids (hoo, boy) and that she’s been struggling with this like deficit for years. *Gulp*
It gets worse. She mouthed off about Instagram’s algorithms never liking her “Munchkin” and fretted about his middle child status and his “squinty eyes.” We couldn’t make this up if we tried, folks.
Then Bower begged and pleaded for her followers to heap likes on her son on the occasion of his birthday. We’re sure her son asked for exactly this.
“So can we do this right? Because I truly KNOW that my Munch deserves alllllll the likes… whether or not a stranger gives it to them. And on his sixth birthday — I am thankful that I know that… that no matter what other people think of me or my kids or my marriage or my house or my life or my everything… that they are 1000000000x better in real life than any tiny little picture could hold.”
If you just threw up several times in your mouth, you’re definitely not alone. Twitter promptly dog-piled Bower and gave her a serious shaming:
We had to laugh at this sarcastic gem.
It did not help that Bower had already admitted on her blog that she was unaware that anyone died in the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
“I told y’all about how literally I had no idea what the deal was with 9-11 when it happened (I was a stupid airhead at the time that didn’t realize that people were actually in the buildings)…it didn’t hit me until a year later that so many people died,” she said.
Bower said she’s now totally woke to 9/11: “[E]very year it gets progressively more emotional for me.” Twitter wasn’t exactly sympathetic to Bower’s newfound feels about the tragedy.
Responding to the online backlash to her self-absorbed birthday post for her son, Bower said it was all about her personal growth. “I had to learn that the likes do not reflect much to me,” Bower explained. “That I had to choose that, because I work with brands that tell you the opposite. I read an article about how to grow your Instagram that tells you the opposite.” What?
Did we mention Bower has more than 52,000 Instagram followers? She’s worried you won’t like her son because he has squinty eyes. It took her a year to understand the massive loss of life that occurred on 9/11. And yet she has 52,000 followers. This is the world we’re living in, people.
Bower rejected accusations she desperately needed her son to be liked online, but she did say, “[K]ids are smart, y’all… Kids know there’s likes on photos and it’s very human nature to compare. So for me, my personal growth journey is teaching my kids it doesn’t matter.”
That’s an interesting way to accomplish that goal: begging followers to give your son birthday likes.
After Bower removed her post, she told fans through Instagram Story she only ditched it because the “drama was out of hand.”
Let’s just hope Bower has a Pinterest-inspired decoupaged children’s therapy jar sitting on a perfectly curated shelf in her kitchen.
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