Submission 4,993

Overview

PokeMom refers to the controversy over tweets made by Liz Mair on Oct 15, 2021. The first tweet remarked her method of parenting where she would Burn Pokémon cards as a punishment when her kid doesn’t do basic stuff he has to do. 11 minutes following the initial tweet, Liz Mair went on to clarify that "The basic stuff is eating. He comes home without having eaten any of his lunch? Card burnt. He doesn’t eat enough dinner? Card burnt. Bear in mind my kid is about 4’6” tall at age 7 and yet weighs less than 55 pounds. He needs to put some weight on, specifically muscle". The tweets received heavy backlash, accusing Liz Mair of child abuse.

Background

On October 14th, Liz Mair tweeted that "This website is getting to be really boring. I’m starting to consider tweeting deliberately crazy and offensive stuff just to try to spice it up again." (shown below) leading some to speculate that the situation was fabricated after she retweeted it, and insisted that it was fake after the backlash. On the other hand, users such as @Rddesjardin and @CrimeGabJenna; also speculated that the story wasnt fabricated due to the lengths the author went to insist it was a joke

Precursor

Perhaps the most popular reaction was the comparison of Liz Mair's supposed parenting to that of John Roderick; "AKA "Bean Dad"":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/bean-dad. The American musician faced a similar controversy earlier that same year; John had tweeted about how his 9-year-old daughter approached him on how to open a can of beans, and seeing this as an "Teaching moment" to teach her self-reliance, Roderick forced her to try to open the can herself over a 6-hour period.

Developments

The tweets were met with immediate backlash. Many Twitter users condemned Liz Mair's action, including actor Seth Rogan. While most user's stated that Liz's supposed actions were child abuse like @WFKARS, others; such as @HazelMonforton pointed out that Liz Mair is the "Twitter Main Character ":https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/twitters-main-character.