Mean Moms: From Middle School Mean Girls to Mom Group Drama

From navigating mean girls in middle school to finding your footing in newborn mom groups, school drop-off circles, and eventually watching your own kids face the same dynamics, female friendship can be complicated at every stage.

Motherhood can bring an entirely new layer to friendship: comparison, competition, cliques, differing parenting choices, shifting identities, and the pressure to find your “mom village.” And somehow, a group text you weren’t included in or a cold shoulder at school drop-off can transport you straight back to seventh grade.

Join Lori Sugarman-Li of Our Home, Our Pride; Lauren Smith Brody, founder of The Fifth Trimester; Hayley Schapiro of Curated Therapy; and content creator Kimmy Neeli for an honest conversation about friendship, belonging, exclusion, and competition throughout motherhood.

We’ll explore why these dynamics can feel so intense, how to distinguish an awkward social moment from a genuinely unhealthy friendship, what to do when you feel excluded, and how to build relationships that feel supportive rather than competitive. We’ll also talk about what happens when our own children begin navigating cliques and exclusion—and how we can help them without projecting our middle-school experiences onto theirs.

Together, we’ll discuss:

• Why motherhood can completely reshape our friendships
• The pressure to find your “mom group”
• Why exclusion can still hurt so much as an adult
• Cliques, comparison, competition, and social hierarchies among moms
• Navigating different parenting choices within friendships
• What happens when your kids’ friendships affect your own
• Knowing when to address something versus letting it go
• Setting boundaries with friendships that no longer feel good
• Making new friends as an adult
• What healthy, supportive mom friendships actually look like
• Helping our kids navigate mean behavior without projecting our own experiences onto them
• How we can model the kinds of friendships we want our children to have

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