Mother Rants About “Mum Shaming” Over Kids’ Diets

HerFamily

A woman has taken to her Facebook page to say that she is fed up with the amount of “mum shaming” that happens in relation to kids’ diets.

Paige-Alexis Cunningham from Australia said that there is no “right way” to feed your children after seeing numerous posts on her timeline concerning what foods to avoid.

She explained: “Lately my feed has been flooded with people sharing ‘what not to feed your kids’ ‘I’ll never let my kids have that again’ and so on. So much mum shaming within these posts!”

Cunningham then ran through what her children had eaten that day including bananas, watermelon, sushi and a McDonald’s Happy Meal.

She said: “Why did they have happy meals and juice? Because they wanted it, we were out in public and I was bloody exhausted and didn’t want to fight with them.

“They picked at it, and then demolished my sushi – which is terrible for kids by the way;The rice is full of sugar and the tuna is full of mercury!”

The mother-of-two continued: “Everyone needs to stop the mum shaming! Did you feed your kids some crap today? Yeah cool, you fed them! It’s the same debate as breast is best, not formula.

“Breast IS best, if it’s best for you. At the end of the day fed children are best. Don’t let them eat junk all the time, but don’t lay the guilt on yourself or any other parent if they ate 2 minute noodles and Nutella today.

“Educate yourself about positive food choices by all means, but don’t feel the need to share every bit of Crap you read and further the mum shaming, everything in moderation and well done for feeding your kids! Rant over!”

Afternoon snack of watermelon and a bit of a rant. Lately my feed has been flooded with people sharing ‘what not to…

Posted by Paige-Alexis Cunningham on Thursday, January 28, 2016

She added that she didn’t intend for her post – which was uploaded last month – to go viral but merely wanted to draw attention to the amount of shaming there is around what mothers feed their children.

Her post ended with: “I said mum shaming, not dad shaming, as I haven’t met a dad who is as involved in the ‘mum shaming culture’ that has come about. And this culture isn’t only limited to how we feed our kids; it’s vaccination vs none vaccination, co sleeping vs not, baby wearing vs a pram, cuddling vs cry it out etc

“I know where my family fits within these categories and it’s not the same everyday, some weeks we purely eat cooked from scratch preservative free from the thermomix, but sometimes we eat junk. Feeding our children should be about education and moderation!

“Yes educational posts are totally fine to share, that’s not what I was referring to. It’s the way they’re shared, your tone, your words. If you manage to only 100% preservative free, natural, vegan, paleo, whatever your thing is to feed your kids – kudos to you!

“At the end of the day there is no medal for Mother of the year. There is just this blessing and huge responsibility of being parents, which is left up to said parents to make the choices of how to raise their babies.

“We should be supporting other mums, not vilifying them for whatever choices they make. What works for you doesn’t always work for me and mine. Do what you gotta do and get through the day loving your kid.”

Her post has received a mixed reaction but what do you think? Let us know in the Facebook comments or get in touch with me via email on rebecca.mcknight@herfamily.ie.