Not Now, Sweetie, Mommy's Cyberbullying / Sims Baby on Fire

About

Not Now, Sweetie, Mommy's Cyberbullying is a phrasal meme format that humorously describes an activity that is worthy of ignoring one's child. Spawned by a viral WordArt image macro in 2017, the snowclone is often combined with an image from The Sims of a woman using a computer while ignoring her burning child on the floor.

Origin

Sims Baby on Fire

On June 20th, 2012, Redditor^[1] Simbamatic posted an image from a modded version of The Sims 3 showing a mother using a computer while her baby is on fire laying on the ground next to her. The post, titled, "Not now sweetie, I'm on Reddit" is the earliest found upload of the image, although likely not its origin. The post gained over 1,800 upvotes in /r/funny in six months (image and post shown below, left and right).

The image saw viral spread through reposts in the following years; for example, prior to October 28th, 2013, Tumblr^[2] user collide-with-my-heart posted an image, commenting "me as a parent" (shown below, left). Prior to September 3rd, 2014, Tumblr^[3] user itsstuckinmyhead posted the image as a part of The Sims meme dump. The post gained over 370,000 likes and reblogs in eight years. On May 16th, 2014, Tumblr^[4] account simsmemes posted an image macro based on the image that gained over 70 likes and reblogs (shown below, right).

Not Now Sweetie, Mommy's Cyberbullying

On July 22nd, 2017, Tumblr^[5] user sierraseybold posted a WordArt image macro of a Sim using a computer captioned, "Not now sweaty, mommy's cyber bullying" (authorship unconfirmed; shown below). The post gained over 19,000 likes and reblogs in five years.

Spread

The catchphrase did not see a significant spread online until 2020. On July 17th, 2019, Twitter^[6] gimmick account @animatedtext tweeted an animated version of the catchphrase that gained over 570 retweets and 2,200 likes in roughly three years. On December 5th, 2019, Instagram^[7] user gayoustar posted a screenshot of a now-deleted tweet by user @rohanhatesme that gained over 2,800 likes in three years (shown below, center). On June 9th, 2020, an unknown Redditor posted an edited version of the Word Art macro, which gained over 1,500 upvotes in the /r/Portland^[8] subreddit in two years (shown below, right). This version saw viral spread in 2020.

On March 22nd, 2021, Twitter^[9] user @missexypayal made the first post combining the phrasal template with the reaction image. The tweet (shown below, left) gained over 32,700 retweets and 237,000 likes prior to being deleted.

Following the tweet, the image achieved a strong association with the snowclone. For example, on April 9th, 2021, Twitter^[10] user @harrymedicine0 posted a version that gained over 190 retweets and 2,200 likes in one year (shown below, right).

The format saw an uptick in use in September 2022 as several versions went viral. For example, on September 1st, 2022, Twitter^[11] user @Manor_Ptr_ posted a version that gained over 4,600 retweets and 40,200 likes in one month.

Various Examples

Templates

Search Interest

External References