My Mom is a Fob

FAQ

HOW DID IT ALL BEGIN?
As serial bloggers, the two of us are constantly thinking of ideas for new blogs we want to start. I’d had it in the back of my head for awhile to start a blog documenting my mother’s hilarity (and trust me, there was a lot of it) — I mentioned it to Serena, who loved it. The rest was history.

Mymomisafob.com was born around midnight on October 18, 2008. While normal college kids embarked on the search for socially acceptable forms of Friday night entertainment, the two of us went buck wild on erm, Tumblr, posting up the cream of the crop from our depository of fobby mom e-mails.

While we were basically slapping our knees with laughter in front of our respective laptops, we weren’t totally sure other people would sing the same tune. In fact, at 1:26:57 AM we had a moment of desperation.

1:26:57 AM Teresa Wu: WHY ISNT ANYONE SENDING US ANYTHING?

Uh, because you started the blog less than two hours ago, genius. Little did we know — five days later, our single-day pageview count would exceed 65,000… and a blogsophere legend was born.

WHAT’S A “FOB”?
FOB stands for “fresh off the boat,” and is a term often used to describe Asian immigrants who just aren’t quite on track with American culture. You know, if your family still eats Peking duck instead of turkey on Thanksgiving, owns a giant cleaver, and takes 20 more napkins than you need at KFC? That’s fob status — and for the record, we aren’t ashamed. My drawer at home is full of silverware… from Chipotle. My mother taught me everything I know.

ISN’T THAT… SORT OF MEAN?
Okay, speaking seriously now: we don’t mean “fob” in a derogatory sense whatsoever. I mean, we’re pretty fobby ourselves (come on, we know some of you out there have owned Totoro pajama sets too — no?) It’s totally tongue in cheek. We’re not trying to make fun of our moms — we think they’re freakin’ adorable, and we want to showcase those precious moments to a community of 2nd-generation Asian American kids who know exactly what it’s like to be on the receiving end of that amazing, unconditional, and sometimes misspelled love. We heart our moms for everything they are: grammatical atrocities, awkward sex talks, and all.

ARE YOU TWO SISTERS?
Nope! It would have taken a very talented mother to give birth two months apart. In fact, we have two very uniquely hilarious Asian moms. We did attend Mission San Jose High School together in Fremont, California (where, for the record, there exists an enormous, ever-expanding population of fob mothers). We’ve been friends since the 7th grade. Nowadays, we share the same passion for lame humor, 5 a.m. bedtimes, and the internetz.

WHAT IF MY DAD IS A FOB? CAN I SEND STUFF TOO?
We’re sorry, your dad is not invited to the party.

Just kidding. We also have fob dads, and we like them too. After we launched mymomisafob.com, we received so many requests for a husband site that we created mydadisafob.com one week later — you can send us submissions at mydadisafob@gmail.com.

HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHICH ONES TO POST? WILL YOU TELL ME IF YOU POST MINE?
We seriously get a lot of stuff coming through our inbox, so we’re very, very sorry if yours doesn’t get posted — we still think your mom is great. If either of us snort so loudly in our lecture halls that the professor gives us a dirty look, that pretty much seals the deal. Photos almost always score brownie points. If you want us to let you know if/when we post yours, just say so in the e-mail. We’ll try to remember.

CAN I WRITE YOU FAN MAIL?
We love fan mail. See our ABOUT page on how to reach us. We would also not complain about monetary gifts.

IS FUNK MEANS SEXY?
Only time will tell.