At the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, when it became clear we would be sheltering in place with our children for the foreseeable future, my friend and I made a promise to ourselves: We would not join TikTok.
It's now day 56 of quarantine here, and guess what? We joined TikTok. We're not alone — searching hashtags like "momsofTikTok" or "parentsofTikTok" or "millennialmoms" or "GenXmoms," it's pretty plain to see that in TikTok land, the parents have arrived, and they're getting comfortable.
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With their children's help or without, parents are showing off their own hip rolls, bringing back the music and dances of their own teenage years, and telling their own stories — and the results will bring you to tears, both happy and sad.
Parents, it turns out, can be "Savage" too (some more than others).
And moms are finding community and commenting on mom life in a new way.
Dads are getting in on the action, too.
Parents are finding that making TikToks together can be a new form of date night.
Parenting content creators have joined TikTok as well, including video stars the Holderness Family and blogger and Instagram influencer Ilana Wiles of Mommy Shorts. Wiles joined TikTok in late February, and she now has almost 19,000 followers on the app.
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Though most of her posts are typical TikTok fare — dancing or participating in popular challenges — Wiles also included poignant moments on TikTok from quarantine. A New York resident, she was diagnosed with probable COVID-19 in late March and had to self quarantine in her bedroom for 10 days while she recovered from the virus.
Wiles posted several TikTok videos from her sickbed, but perhaps the most emotional post was of the moment she was able to reemerge and hug her two daughters, Mazzy, 10, and Harlow, 7.
"TikTok has been a much needed source of levity throughout this whole thing," Wiles told TODAY Parents. "Initially, I joined so I could supervise my 10-year-old, who was begging me to be on the platform, but I quickly learned that there was so much fun content for my age too. I think it helps that so many other moms seem to have joined at the same time, so we are all newbies together trying to figure it out."
And figure it out they have. The question is, when quarantine is over, will the kids get TikTok back to themselves? Probably not. After all, now these moms are #savage.
