By Louise Flanagan
This week on Letterkenny Babies Facebook page, someone messaged in asking for ways to entertain an 18 month old who was going through a really fussy, contrary phase. Someone replied with ‘Two words: Ms Rachel.’
It reminded me that in the run up to Christmas, we received lots of frantic messages from parents trying to source Ms Rachel merchandise for their tots. Who was this lady anyway?!
It’s funny, when you’re at a particular stage of child rearing, you’re totally immersed in that world. To lots of us, Ms Rachel is pretty much a non entity; to others she’s like an extra family member.
Turns out, she’s an American YouTube content creator with a legion of baby and toddler worshippers.
So, what does she do that has all the babies hooked? She simply sings sweet, wholesome songs and bops about on screen.
More power to her – she is a multimillionaire with a net worth of over $20million dollars, if Google can be believed.
Ms Rachel is a youthful 42 years old and only started creating this content for ‘littles’ in 2019.
Her own son had a speech and language delay and didn’t speak until he was two, so she wrote songs to encourage him to communicate.
Then with Covid, his professional therapy stopped entirely, so she threw herself into musical content creation to help him further.
He wasn’t the only one she helped, by all accounts.
I put the feelers out on Letterkenny Babies and was inundated with comments praising her for many a child’s language skills.
One parent wrote, “My 18 month old girl absolutely loves Ms Rachel. She’s so good in many ways, teaching them their speech, colours, numbers and animals. Her voice is very kid friendly too. I often get sucked in watching her myself. Would highly recommend it to all toddlers.”
Another added, “Both my children have learned so much from her. My two year old knows the alphabet, colours, shapes and can count to ten and, to be fair, it’s all because of Ms Rachel.
“She was also doing sign language at 15 months. If the kids are going to watch tv, Ms Rachel is the one to watch!”
Clearly, parents are grateful that their children are learning so much from her, but of course, they are also glad of a bit of peace to get the housework done too; “Her content is absolutely amazing. My son smiles, dances and interacts with her. It’s so sweet and gives me time to cook dinner.”
Others joked that their children are being co-parented by Ms Rachel.
I’m sure this truly is a joke and that screentime is controlled, but it’s interesting to see so many parents sing the praises of this lady.
Now, before any of you go dusting off the tin whistle in an attempt to make your millions on YouTube, be warned that Ms Rachel’s husband just so happens to be a Broadway music director and composer. Handy or what?!
It seems the stars aligned for Ms Rachel, but rather than begrudging her meteoric rise to fame, parents the world over can’t heap enough praise on her.
One mammy suggested that Ms Rachel would be even more awesome if she branched out a little; “I wish there was a Ms Rachel for men – ‘Hi… Hello… Can you pick up your clothes… pick up your clothes.’”
If you know, you know!
Louise Flanagan is an admin of Letterkenny Babies Facebook page and the author of the children’s book series, Dragonterra and Dream Beasts. www.dragonterra.ie
Related posts:
Receive quality journalism wherever you are, on any device. Keep up to date from the comfort of your own home with a digital subscription.
Any time | Any place | Anywhere
SUBSCRIBE TO CURRENT EDITION TODAY
and get access to our archive editions dating back to 2007(CLICK ON THE TITLE BELOW TO SUBSCRIBE)