Slang dictionary
silky mom
[ sil-kee mom]
What does silky mom mean?
A silky mom is someone who practices a lenient parenting style that embraces modern technology, science, and convenience.
A silky mom is often described as a modern mother who uses technology and products that make parenting easier or less stressful. A silky mom is also typically not strict with their children and allows them a lot of freedom to behave as they wish.
Some behaviors that are often ascribed to a silky mom include:
- Having medicated births in a hospital while supervised by medical professionals
- Getting all of their children (and themselves) vaccinated and following a vaccination schedule
- Using disposable diapers
- Using baby formula and bottles
- Being unconcerned about additives and artificial sweeteners in food
- Purchasing products that assist in parenting
- Allowing children to use technology and watch screens for long periods of time
The term silky mom is often contrasted with the term crunchy mom, which refers to a mother who prefers natural solutions and shuns modern technology and medicine. It’s often used as a positive term. A third term—scrunchy mom—refers to a mother who is a blend of a silky mom and a crunchy mom in that they sometimes prefer modern technology and sometimes prefer natural options.
Example: I’ve got a silky mom who doesn’t care how much I use my smartphone.
Where does silky mom come from?
The term silky mom seems to have emerged in the early 2010s and seems to have been inspired by the earlier term crunchy mom, which it is often contrasted with. Although the exact origin of the term is unknown, silky seems to have been used as a figurative contrast to the crunchy in crunchy mom, as the two terms are often discussed as opposites to each other. The term could possibly allude to the silky mom being seen as a soft or easy parent who is opposite to the crunchy mom’s tougher method of parenting.
While the terms silky mom, crunchy mom, and scrunchy mom have been used since the early 2010s, they became more popular in the early 2020s due to an increase in usage on social media, especially TikTok.
Examples of silky mom
Who uses silky mom?
Silky mom is used on social media as either a self-identifier or by people describing their own or other people’s mothers. In contrast to crunchy mom, silky mom is more often used as a positive term.
Tiktok just told me im a Silky Mom and I’m here for it. 🤷🏽♀️
— Boward Woward (@Petty_Kane) March 3, 2023
Just discovered I'm a Silky Mom. Never been more proud to be put in a category lol
— Marisela Zapata (@mari_shoe) March 24, 2023
I fell into the silky/crunchy mom TikTok 😂😂….. and it’s safe to say I’m a silky mom for sure. It’s made life so much better for me.
— mslandyyy (@mslandyyy) March 2, 2023
Note
This is not meant to be a formal definition of silky mom like most terms we define on Dictionary.com, but is rather an informal word summary that hopefully touches upon the key aspects of the meaning and usage of silky mom that will help our users expand their word mastery.