In a mere two weeks, @PeanutFreeMom has amassed 7,000 Twitter followers — and plenty of ire.
@PeanutFreeMom, aka “Debra Jones-O’Brien,” aka “Life Coach, Career Mom, Peanut-Free Advocate” has a Twitter feed that’s just as annoying as the handle and description would suggest. Hitting on the topics of yoga, sangria, Whole Foods and her son Caleb’s nut allergies, the tweets are a collection of obnoxious, self-righteous, seemingly upper-middle class mommy tidbits which practically beg for backlash. Characteristic tweets include “Um yeah, hi, I’ve donated plenty of money to get salad bars in our public schools” and “In many ways peanut and tree nut allergies are far more serious than AIDS.”
(MORE: Top 10 Twitter Controversies)
While @PeanutFreeMom’s tweets have led to more than a few Twitter feuds (surprise, surprise), many followers seem to have caught on to the joke. Sure, we’ve all had experience with yuppie moms who’s real-life wisdom is frighteningly similar, but Debra Jones-O’Brien’s tweets seem just too awful to be true.
After the Los Angeles Times wrote about their suspicion that @PeanutFreeMom was actually a parody feed, they received an email from the supposed tweeter behind @PeanutFreeMom — an anonymous man from the Boston area. Writing to the Times, he said that he’d started the feed as a joke for his friends and was surprised that it’d gotten so popular. And while the feed is so over the top, the author added that “All the Parenting Tips are actual things I heard throughout my career in working with children”.
Um yeah, hi, we don’t doubt it. (via Los Angeles Times)
Megan Gibson is a reporter at TIME. Find her on Twitter at @MeganJGibson. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.