On a recent morning, Caitlin Murray’s 8-year-old daughter had a piece of sausage stuck in her palate expander and she was trying to remove it with orthodontic appliances at breakfast time. Her 11-year-old son, who was recovering from a stomach ailment, was left speechless when he saw his sister. Meanwhile, his 5-year-old brother painted the entire dining room table.
“I was like, ‘Oh my God, go to school,'” Murray told The Post. “But also laughing at how absurd it is [it was],
If for Nora Ephron “everything was imitation” – who turned her ex-husband’s infidelity into a best-selling novel – for Murray everything is material.
Mining humor from the chaos and mundane indignities of motherhood and midlife, the 42-year-old Westchester mother of three has become a social media star — and has attracted celebrity fans like Jennifer Garner, Jennifer Aniston, Penelope Cruz and Ilana Glazer. . ,
“It’s all so much the same, it’s hard to separate,” she said of life as a mother and her work as a content creator.
In a recent Instagram post that went viral, Murray gave a funny commentary on various health advice videos circulating on the internet.
“Hey ladies, are you struggling to lose belly fat?” She says in unison. “You’re not getting enough protein, well, you have to take the grams of protein and multiply it by the number of stars in the sky, and in order to figure out how much protein you need a day to lose weight, but lose weight. You’ll also need to be in a calorie deficit to do that, idiot. But you also need to live your life: memories, not macros… Comment on the science behind my six-week plan to get completely ripped.
The video has been viewed nearly 12 million times and has been praised by celebrities like parenting expert Dr. Becky Kennedy and Grammy-award-winning singer Pink, who called it “the funniest thing ever” in the comments section.
“It’s kind of surreal,” Murray said of his success and high-wattage followers. “Just being a regular mom and then having people who are mega stars suddenly recognize your face.”
His internet stardom came in a roundabout way.
Murray’s eldest son was diagnosed with leukemia when he was 3 years old and underwent more than three years of intensive treatment.
He began writing emails to family and friends, providing the latest information about his health along with humor and anecdotes. In the field of publishing he was noticed by a neighbor who got him some business Meetings took place, but Murray was told that without an online following he could not get a book deal.
So, at the end of 2018, he Launched my Instagram account @BigTimeAdultingIt originally focused on funny videos of her dancing, often with her youngest child clutched to her chest.
Murray, who previously worked raising money for the Ireland Fund and the Dalton School, has no formal training in performing or writing beyond some high school improvisations. But, she said, she “has probably always been a bit of a ham.”
These days, his social media focuses on observations delivered directly to the camera, often in a prosaic and colorful language. (Neither her children nor her husband appear in the video.)
“no you can’t go to sephora With their baby’s skin,” she says of the trend of young girls wanting expensive skin care. “Why don’t you go out there and find a rusty trampoline with no side enclosure to double bounce on.”
In Another video, she tells “Travel games are becoming a real kick in the TT. If you guys want to schedule these kids’ games for 7, 8, 9 pm on the weekend, I’ll start handing out martinis on the sidelines.
Murray usually appears tired in her posts, her hair pulled haphazardly back, her face bare – the better to see what she says are her “genetic” prominent undereyes. are circles.
She said of her beauty preferences, “I’ve never seen anyone on Instagram look the way I do, hot to death every morning.”
Murray’s elder son is now a healthy fifth grader. But his cancer has left an indelible mark on him as a parent and as a comedian.
“Going through that experience felt like I had a lot more credibility as a mom and could say whatever I wanted about the ups and downs and fun things of motherhood,” she said. “I didn’t really care if it seemed, you know, taboo.”
And, now she has a book deal. A collection of his personal essays will be published by the Random House imprint in 2025.
“Changing careers and gears at a later stage in my life has been a great experience,” Murray said. “I didn’t expect it at all, but it’s been extremely gratifying and fun.”
