Mayim Bialik sounds off on competitive mothers

Mayim Bialik once left a mothers' group in tears due to the competitive nature of participants.

The Big Bang Theory actress and her ex-husband Michael Stone are parents to sons Miles, 12, and nine-year-old Frederick.

In a YouTube video posted on Thursday (28Dec17), Mayim tackled the topic of parenting, and explained how she was put off attending certain mums' meetings because of boastful mothers shortly after the birth of her first child.

"I used cloth diapers. I didn't use pacifiers or bottles. I didn't have fancy clothes and neither did my baby. I didn't have a manicure. I mean, I barely had time to shower. How was I going have time to get a manicure?" she recalled. "Everything was a competition. These were not my people. I left in tears."

Mayim described how mothers at the meeting bragged over various topics, including the speed of their labor and how "precocious their babies were with pooping, rolling over, sitting up, smiling".

One woman boasted to another mother about how fast her milk came down after the baby latched onto her breast.

"Moms are so competitive! Why is that?" the 42-year-old said. "Is it because we're just catty and combative by nature? Is it because we're bored and we have nothing better to do?"

Accordingly, Mayim offered viewers her theory on the subject, sharing that she believes the competitive spirit over raising children is mostly evident within her age bracket and is a consequence of being the first generation that were "constitutionally raised to believe that we can and should do it all".

To combat certain alienating behaviours, the star would like to see women support each other and find more "meaningful" discussions.

"Let's get back to a model of camaraderie that reduces competition, fosters friendship and empathy and increases the success of a society that is built on the foundational principles of woman-to-woman support, which has sustained our species for so long, so well. We can only do this together," she smiled.