'Happy birthday, spawn. Welcome to the wrong side of twenty-five. The expiration date on your eggs is officially in sight. Tick tock. Love, Mom'. This was the text message Kate Friedman woke up to on the morning of her 26th birthday, but her mother's maternal adoration and helicopter parenting began while Kate was still in utero. Never shy about pushing her only daughter to study harder, to dump her loser boyfriends, to move to 'less rapey' neighbourhoods, Kate's mum has given some truly hilarious but often sage advice over the years. It wasn't until Kate began sharing her mother's messages online that she realised quite how many people would find her mother as hysterical as she does.