It’s been a pretty good couple of weeks for TV shows accurately portraying what life can really be like after you birth a small human.
First, the ABC gave us The Letdown, which in only two episodes has managed to cover incontinence, absent fathers, knock off prams made in Indonesia and controlled crying in a way that’s hilarious, but also strangely comforting.
Now over on Stan, we’ve now got SMILF. That’s short for Single Mum I’d Like to… you get the idea.
The show, as you’ve probably gathered, follows single mum Bridgette Bird (Frankie Shaw), a working-class 20-something from Boston as she juggles raising her toddler, Larry, and stuffing up her life like normal millennials.
And look, the verdict is still out on this one. Currently, TV critics have the series sitting somewhere between thoroughly genius and too messy for its own good.
In episode one, Bridget manages to do pretty much everything a good mother would never. She leaves Larry at home to get snacks. She leaves Larry unattended in the pram. Basically, she just leaves Larry places she shouldn’t.
That said, SMILF taps into a very real concern most new mums face… and it’s got to do with ‘down there’.
You see, Bridget’s main concern in life, other than her son’s welfare, is the tightness of her vagina. After pushing out something roughly the size of a bowling ball, whether or not her lady garden is going to snap back to its pre-birth condition is all she thinks about.