In a disorienting display of familiarity, Cecily Sagar just referred to her mother as simply “Mom” while conversing with a friend.
The confounding blunder is now sending shockwaves through her community.
“I didn’t say anything in the moment because I was too taken aback,” says Pilar Serna-Rhodes. “She just casually said something about ‘Mom’ trying to get her to fly home, and at that point, my brain short-circuited.”
“Like, are we sisters?” Serna-Rhodes adds. “Do I have amnesia? Does she have amnesia? Does either of us know where we are?”
The inexplicable remark has left many wondering who Sagar thinks she is.
“I guess it just seems unfair that now her mom is suddenly like the universal Mom,” Serna-Rhodes says. “It’s a breach of the social contract. You can refer to your mom as ‘my mom’ or you can refer to her by her first name if you insist, but even that is demanding whoever you’re speaking to know a lot about your family.”
“Not to play armchair psychiatrist,” Serna-Rhodes adds. “But it does seem like a sign of some sort of mental illness.”
We asked Sagar what’s next for her, and if it includes walking around wearing just socks in public and taking bites of strangers food because she seems to think the world is her house and all humankind her immediate family.
“Oh, my God,” says Sagar. “I really didn’t think it was that big of a deal. Are you seriously gonna write a whole article about this? Are you going to use my real name?”
Uh, yeah sweetie, we’re going to use your real name because we don’t all just go around referring to people by relationally specific titles.
“This reaction does feel disproportional to me,” Sagar says. “But I will say, once my mom referred to my grandma as ‘Mom’ and it really turned my world upside down, so I kind of get it.”
