Home / News / Viral & Trending ‘We’re Americans’ TikTok trend is the epitome of dark humor for U.S. parents roamaroo_travel/TikTok “If you have a baby, that’s on you.” By Arielle Tschinkel July 21, 2024 roamaroo_travel/TikTok Rectangle When it comes to basic resources and support for parents and their children, the United States falls sharply behind the vast majority of other developed countries. In fact, the U.S. is the only wealthy country in the world without any guaranteed paid leave on a federal level, including parental leave or any national family caregiving or medical leave policy. We’ve also got precious few resources available to parents, a fact that’s highlighted as healthcare and education costs continue to soar—though lawmakers send hundreds of billions elsewhere for bombs and other war weaponry, of course. Related: We deserve better: American mothers have been neglected for way too long One TikTok is emphasizing these grim stats, and it’ll make you both laugh and cry all at once. Travel pros and parents Scott and Collette (@roamaroo) put their spin on the “We’re Americans” trend, shining light on what it’s like to raise kids in the land of the free. “We’re Americans. We can’t take a day off if our kid is sick, so we send them to daycare and get everyone else’s kids sick,” begins Collette. “We’re Americans. Our childcare costs more than our rent,” adds Scott. (Yep, it’s true.) @roamaroo_travel We can be the change. *TW ⚠️ 🤍We want better. We want better for you. For your family. For your kids. For your kids, kids. We as a collective have the power to move the needle in the right direction. Economies simply cannot function without a thriving structure of care. 82% of American voters support parental leave yet it still doesn’t exist… 🤍We want a better baseline for every woman, child, and man and we will work our hardest to bring awareness to what is and what can be. We have the ability to look at success stories from other countries around the world to model a better baseline for families in our own country. 🤍If you’re angry with this video, good. You should be. These are realities and they’re upsetting. Anger is an intense emotion and it can be a huge motivator for change. We dug deep into the things that triggered us in order to make this. Because as entrepreneurial parents in the U.S., we don’t get paid parental leave (unlike other countries like The Netherlands and Norway). But we’re not special in this position…. we’re like most of our fellow Americans. The truth around family leave, the racial disparities and lack of prenatal & postpartum care, and the cost of childcare are all in dire need of improvement. We need modern-day legislative updates to support our economy and the people contributing to it. 🤍Vote. Get involved. Make your voice heard. Here are a few organizations and people that are leading the brigade to make the U.S. a better place. • Paid Leave For All – “a growing collaborative of organizations fighting for paid family and medical leave for all working people.” • Moms First US – “Movement fighting to get moms the support we deserve: child care, paid leave, equal pay.” • Reshma Saujani – The CEO/founder of @MomsFirstUS • Mothering Justice – “A black woman-led, grassroots advocacy and leadership development org that inspires mamas of color to take action on US policy change” #paidleave #momssupportingmoms #parentinghumor #parentingproblems #parentingsupport #parentalleave #livewithpurpose #maternityleave ♬ original sound – Roamaroo Sitting at her computer with her toddler in tow, Colette adds, “We’re Americans. We expect women to work like they don’t mother and mother like they don’t work.” “We’re Americans. We have policies of forced pregnancy, but no access to affordable basic healthcare or childcare,” says Scott. “It’s horrible.” “We have the worst maternal death rate of developed countries and no postpartum care,” continues Collette. “Because if you have a baby, that’s on you.” (Pssst… it’s even worse for Black American women, who face a maternal mortality rate of 2.6 times higher than their white counterparts, regardless of income or education levels.) Lastly, Scott concludes: “We’re Americans. We believe that paid family leave will hurt the economy even though research shows that it would increase our GDP (gross domestic product) by 5%.” In the caption of their post, the couple shared resources for those who are angry and upset by these statistics, which impact all U.S. parents, but not proportionally. Marginalized identities and lower-income Americans face the most barriers to care and support, and the ripple effects impact their physical and emotional well-being in ways big and small. Of course, that’s without mentioning the impacts on their babies, too. Commenters then shared their own thoughts, with one person calling it “the saddest, truest post.” Another wrote: “My OB office wouldn’t allow me to bring my exclusively breastfed newborn to my postpartum check-ups. Make it make sense 🙃” Related: The system to support motherhood is currently broken—it’s time to fix it “We just had twins and daycare is 3600 a month” wrote one user, while another said: “I went back to work 8 days after I had my second child so we wouldn’t be evicted. The week after Christmas. The American dream.”Ah, yes, we’re Americans. Where “pro-life” really just means “pro-birth,” because there’s not going to be much support for you during any step of the way. Aside from expressing your concerns to your local elected officials and voting for candidates who support affordable healthcare and education policies, the pair recommends following orgs like Paid Leave for All, Moms First, and Mothering Justice. All three are grassroots organizations working towards supporting parents in the U.S., because let’s face it, change is far overdue. A version of this post was published in February 2024. It has been updated. The latest News Mom refuses grandparents’ help after they take baby without permission—Reddit reacts News Watch: Baby’s emotional reaction to seeing clearly for the first time goes viral News Grieving mom’s heartwarming Elf on the Shelf tribute to her late infant son News Viral TikTok sheds light on the struggles of being the first mom in your friend group