Motherhood can be full of sweet, memorable moments, but it also comes with plenty of exhaustion, awkward encounters, household chaos, questionable decisions, and days when hiding from everyone for five minutes sounds like a perfectly reasonable plan. Cartoonist Harlow Brooke turns that less-polished side of family life into the heart of her humorous series, “I Am Mama.” Brooke describes herself as a cartoonist and artist whose work revolves around “parenting, motherhood, being a woman, relationships, issues that matter to me… and probably also things that don’t matter that much at all.” Her cartoons have also appeared in the UK-based “The New Cartoonist,” a publication dedicated to political and gag cartoons.
Brooke approaches parenting firmly from within the chaos rather than presenting a picture-perfect version of it. Her cartoons find humor in situations many parents will recognize immediately. Brooke also explores relationships, friendships, aging, being a woman, and the strange expectations that seem to arrive with adulthood. Many of her cartoons have the feeling of amusing little confessions of thoughts and observations people often have but might hesitate to say out loud, while staying deliberately visually simple.
We’ve gathered a selection of her cartoons, so scroll down to enjoy them, and let us know which were your favorites.
More info: Instagram | momwarpcartoons.com
#1
“This little cartoon followed a week during which it seemed my child’s pizza consumption had reached an all-time high and would eventually start to show. School celebrations, parties, play dates, lazymommy’s dinners – all just throwing pizza at those kiddos. And, somehow, they don’t get tired of it! I’ll admit, it’s hard not to like a good pizza.”
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#2
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#3
“Schools back in session .And with that, some of those old feelings of being right back in grade school. I’m supposed to have outgrown this!!?”
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#4
“Tomorrow I promise to be better…”
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#5
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#6
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#7
“Hugged your inner to-do monster today? Those to-do’s just keep coming don’t they.”
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#8
“Ah…baby-envy is real! It is perimenopause’s way of messing with us old mamas! Maybe the body saying there might be 1 slightly-ok egg left in there??? I don’t know.”
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#9
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#10
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#11
“Corpse Pose: a fabulous means of relieving stress. Less fabulous for unsuspecting house guests.
In the throws of peri and given the current state of the world, I’m finding myself in this pose frequently these days…”
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#12
“Another forty-something birthday right around the corner…”
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#13
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#14
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#15
“An after-bedtime discussion goes south.”
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#16
“Safety first.”
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#17
“You don’t have to let go.”
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#18
“Late 40s motherhood: a weird convergence of contemplating pregnancy and registering for AARP.”
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#19
“Kidlife = sweets, sweets and more sweets…”
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#20
“The ‘no’ button was funny for about 5 minutes. Now I do my best to hide it.”
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#21
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#22
“Any of you have a pour-over coffee drinker in your lives? I’m more of a tea gal.”
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#23
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#24
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#25
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#26
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#27
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#28
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