Mom Hilariously Lists All The Parenting Rules She Broke After She Actually Had Kids

Everyone is a perfect parent before they have kids, right? Before kids, it’s so easy to judge others, so easy to imagine how things will be, and so easy to think that you’ll be different than the all other moms.

Then reality hits.

Perhaps no one has captured this better than comedian Carla Freeman, who went viral on TikTok by listing all of the rules she planned on following when she became a parent — then showing how it’s going now that she’s in the trenches.

“There will be no plastic toys in the house,” the video begins — with a well-rested “pre-baby” Freeman sipping a coffee with perfect hair and makeup.

Cut to current-day mom Freeman, dumping a plastic tub full of plastic toys onto the floor, now make-up free, frazzled, and sporting the universal messy mom bun.

Next up?

“Zero screen time,” insists the pre-kid mom, before the video cuts severely to her present-day self watching Paw Patrol.

“Playing outside is food for the child’s soul,” she says next, before the video cuts harshly to the present day as she struggles with laundry and tells a little fib to her kid: “We can’t go to the park today, sweetheart. They’re all shut!”

Other rules that didn’t go exactly the way she expected before she actually had to parent? Not ripping down dad in front of the kids, not serving processed food, and never using emotional blackmail. Oh — and never using your phone in front of your child.

The video, which has been viewed 3.4 million times, has definitely struck a cord with moms.

“The perfect parent is always the one with no kids,” one mom commented.

“I have a strict plan for every day,” shared another. “If we manage to do 20% of it at the end of the day I count it as a win.”

Commenters were also quick to share their own experiences making parenting rules that they broke once they were actually parents. And they were pretty real.

“Me: ‘My child is never gonna have McDonald's’ ...proceeds to buy him a happy meal,” one confessed.

“I’ll never raise my voice at my child,” another shared.

“Sorry sweetie, chuck e cheese is for birthday parties only," wrote another.

And in true TikTok fashion, other moms have used Freeman’s audio to share their own experience of going from being the perfect mom before having kids to becoming a real mom.

The best news is that this is far from Freeman’s only hilarious insight into motherhood — her TikTok channel is filled with hard truths about what it’s like to be a parent, and nothing is funnier than that.

A good place to start is her self-care tips for moms. Enjoy!