Mom group Hot Mess Express surprises fellow mother with helping hand

Hot Mess Express is a group of moms helping fellow moms with chores and more.

January 19, 2024, 5:01 PM

Sometimes, you just need a little extra help.

That's where the group Hot Mess Express comes in. Hot Mess Express, now a nonprofit, first started as a Facebook group led by mothers, who banded together to help their fellow moms.

Jen Hamilton launched Hot Mess Express in 2021 and said she got the idea to start the group after seeing another mom's online post discussing how depressed she felt about not being able to keep up with her household chores and asking for cleaning company recommendations.

Brittinie Tran appears on "Good Morning America," Jan. 19, 2024.
ABC News

"The Hot Mess Express is just a group of moms who come together to rescue other moms who are struggling," Hamilton told "Good Morning America." "We go into her space and we do dishes, laundry, organization. We basically just give her a house reset so that she can feel better."

It's a scenario Hamilton knows firsthand.

"I had been in situations as a new mom where I wished that there was somebody to rescue me," she said. "And so to be that for someone else is just so incredible."

Today, Hot Mess Express members show up to help other moms in need and volunteer to do everything from helping a mom clean her house to getting dinner on the table.

Brittinie Tran now runs and operates Hot Mess Express as its president and told "GMA" moms shouldn't feel ashamed to ask for help when they need it.

Mariah Harris appears on "Good Morning America," Jan. 19, 2024.
ABC News

"I think it's so important that there be 'hot messes' for women around the country so that they have that village that everyone always says that, you know, we need, but we can never find," Tran said.

Hot Mess Express first began in North Carolina and has since expanded to multiple chapters across the country, helping countless women, including mom Niki Stockdale.

"They're just wonderful, selfless women who understand what it is like to be a mom and a wife, and to have some things fall apart and let things kind of fall behind," Stockdale said.

On Thursday, Hot Mess Express teamed up with "GMA" to surprise another mom -- Mariah Harris -- a mother of three who just welcomed a baby.

Jen Hamilton appears on "Good Morning America," Jan. 19, 2024.
ABC News

Harris' husband Sertonius Harris said his wife definitely deserved a visit from Hot Mess Express.

"She is literally the definition of 'super mom,' raising three kids, working a full-time job, and she deserves nothing but the best," Sertonius Harris said, prior to the surprise. "It would be so exciting and amazing if Hot Mess Express could come in and help her out and take some things off her plate."

After Hot Mess Express and "GMA" showed up at Mariah Harris' home, the mom of three said she felt "blessed" to receive the surprise visit from the moms, who were there to help her clean, organize, fold laundry and more.

The "Hot Mess Express" group appears on "Good Morning America," Jan. 19, 2024.
ABC News

"It's just a blessing. I mean, y'all know, as moms, you just get so overwhelmed and the day to day just becomes the next day, and then it becomes the next week, and I just feel so blessed to even see you all here, and to get this," she said.

To help make the moms' days even better, Clorox donated $5,000 to Hot Mess Express and gave $500 gift cards to Mariah Harris and each of the Hot Mess Express members who went to help her.