Listen, friends. My mom is cooler than your mom, and I am here to prove it. This isn’t a challenge. It is a fact, so game on.

Sure, we all feel that way about our mothers; proud, protective, possessive. We have learned our best qualities from them, naturally, whether it be working, baking, or friend-making. They have their strengths, and in turn, they passed them on to us. I mean, hey, these octogenarians taught us how to be moms, so we learned our life skills and social finesse from the best.

By keeping up with everything going on around us in today’s world, my mom is way cooler than your mom because she has adapted to life as we know it in the 21st century, and more importantly, she has kept up, even surpassing some expectations of a person her age. And she has amazed me with not only her desire to stay current but her ability to do so.

So, Mom, this one is for you, because you are cooler than the other moms.

Technology Baffles Us All

Let’s face it. Technology baffles all of us, even the daughters who are two decades younger than their cool moms. However, who do we reach out to when we are in doubt or perplexed with technology? Our kids. In my mother’s case, her grandchildren. As I sat down to write this article, my mom was texting my son as he and I spoke on the phone. She reached out to him to clarify if a text she received was Spam. Once again, she was savvy enough to realize something was amiss but wanted confirmation. No one is going to fool my mom.

My cool mom has mastered her phone. I demonstrate how to navigate once, and she grasps it. For instance, this grandmother of eight is capable of taking pictures on her iPhone, texting the pictures to those grandchildren, and adding emojis to embellish her emotions surrounding the sent photo. Truth be told, she probably learned much of this on her own, always sharp, always confident. By taking on technology, she keeps up with all of us. Into her early eighties and she is still relevant.

Mom Stays Current with Social Media

In her quest to keep current, my mother has had her pulse on Facebook since it was fashionable for the elderly to partake in social media. Today, her generation (and mine) dominate Facebook, much to the chagrin of our offspring. At the time, this grandma was “liking” every post her friends and relatives shared. So much so, that she was asked to tone down her enthusiasm by one embarrassed grandchild, so she obliged.

However, this did not discourage her. My mom stayed the course with social media, eventually venturing into Instagram, learning how to repost anything and everything I ever write (she thinks I’m brilliant, but, after all, she is my mom), and finally creating her own Avatar. The best part about this? I think it is so cool. One, that she cares enough to take the time, and two, that she can do this on her own. Her Avatar is constantly fist-bumping, high-fiving, and offering accolades to all of her friends’ pictures and posts.

While I might argue that her Avatar does not quite reflect her present-day look, I love how she created her likeness and proudly utilizes it, and correctly, I might add, for all of social media to see.

Yeah, my mom is definitely cool.

My Mom is a Huge Sports Fan

My mom is a sports fan. She spent years on the sidelines of a variety of sports, some of which she knew nothing about. Yet she persevered and learned the rules but admitted over Thanksgiving she never fully grasped “off-sides.” She even got the hang of livestreaming the grandchildren’s collegiate games if she couldn’t be there in person, which is no easy task with spotty Wi-Fi and inclement weather at the fields. Still, she was there with us through highlights and lowlights, riding it out with to the end.

With those days behind us, she now takes to texting me during professional sports games, most recently the Phillies run in the play-offs. We would watch simultaneously from our own homes, commenting on hits, homeruns, and Harper, naturally. It was a nice connection, being there without being there. I can remember during another play-off series over forty years ago when she was sitting in front of our tiny TV at home, wrapped in a blanket, intently watching the Phillies. She called me into the room. Watch. Just watch. You are going to want to see this. Tug McGraw. Need I say more?

Leading into the weekend, if we haven’t talked live, I will text with a reminder of when the Eagles are playing. She doesn’t want to miss it. Sometimes her texts during a game make me nervous, especially when she says, “It doesn’t look good.” I always reassure her that there is still plenty of time…She will follow-up with, “Whew!” when another nail-biting finish takes place. As a matter of fact, my last text conversation during the Monday Night Football game featuring our hometown Birds was with my mom. She sent me a smiley face emoji followed by and an eagle emoji. Lights out, indeed.

This One Floored Me

The real kicker, though, was the day my mom watched the documentary P!NK: All I Know So Far. She and I always discuss shows we are watching or recommendations for another series, but when she told me she watched P!NK, I asked her to repeat herself. I did not recommend it, even though I LOVED it, nor did I know she was interested in Pink.

Her response? Well, she heard us “girls” (two 60-year-olds and a 30-year-old) talking about Pink and going to her concert, so she wanted to know who we were talking about and what her music sounded like. Knock me over with a feather from one of Pink’s boas. It gets better. My mom liked her. Admired her – as a mom.

Her cool factor went up five notches.

Even at her age, my mom continues to impress me. She stays up to date on news, current events, and trends. My mom does not shy away from the technology we live with but learns to combat it and embraces it. She finds her way around social media, and now she likes Pink. Who knew?

Yeah, my mom is way cool.

Please leave a comment about your mom’s cool factor. Moms are simply the best.

Since it is a time of family gatherings, here is a VERY early piece I wrote about a road trip I took with my mom and her sister. If you haven’t read it before, you might want to take a moment…Road Trip: A Journey with the Golden Girls – scribingwithscout LLC