The primary characteristic of Icelandic humour is self-deprecation, and nowhere on Facebook will you find a better example of this than in the group ‘True Story’. Although the posts are written in Icelandic, it is heavy with images and videos that revolve around one central theme: the everyday conditions of your typical family home.
The group features a variety of visual media, which will all make you feel better about how you’re living—compared to someone else. Get ready for photos of The Things Under The Couch, piles of dirty laundry shoved into corners of laundry rooms, and seven half-empty bottles of King Syrup on kitchen shelves.
True Story serves an important function. All too often, those of us with families lament the chaos of our living settings; we berate ourselves for being bad parents because our homes are in a perpetual state of disarray, and we ask ourselves how it is that everyone else can manage to have perfectly clean and orderly homes while we continually fall short. To be confronted with the reality that, in fact, literally no family home is free from disorder and dishevelment is comforting and reassuring.
If you’re a parent wracked with guilt, or an expecting parent setting impossibly high standards for yourself, this group is for you. It might also be the group for you if you’re not a parent but are wondering if you have the stomach for it. True Story is a social service, and one we welcome.
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