Chrissy Teigen on being shamed for her parenting – “It definitely gets to me”
Chrissy Teigen is a very funny and talented person, and the mum to two wee kids. She’s also the prime target for hundreds and possibly thousands of hyper-critical Instagram users who delight in spotting perceived ‘missteps’ in her parenting and calling her out on it.
What’s wrong with this picture?
While some might assume this comes with the territory and that it would be water off a duck’s back (the duck being Chrissy, sorry Chrissy!), the Lip Sync Battle host and author says this is far from the case.
“It definitely gets to me,” Chrissy told TODAY Parents this week. “Certain days it gets to me more than other days.”
She says she’s spotted patterns relating to how this kind of negative commentary affects her mental health.
“I realised if I read Twitter too early when I wake up, I tend to be like a little more moody with it and things get to me more.”
Read more about mum shaming on social media:
- Kourtney Kardashian Insta-shamed for her “bad” parenting
- Justin Timberlake ‘dad shamed’ after posting a picture of his son on Instagram
- 7 times celebrities were upsettingly “parent shamed”
“Everyone will get mad at me”
The ‘if you can’t say anything nice’ adage seems to have passed a lot of people by. They head to Instagram with the mindset of ‘what’s wrong with this picture’ instead – and crow loudly when they spy something that might be deemed questionable.
make the “???” face at me and ask why I’m feeding my kid a recalled e-coli veg when I’m not and you wonder why I’m defensive, no ma’am
— christine teigen (@chrissyteigen) November 25, 2018
Chrissy told TODAY she’s “definitely gotten used to seeing every possible type of comment” on everything from photos of her feeding or playing with her children to snaps of her shopping. This takes the Insta out of Instagram for her – and other celebrity parents – as they’re forced to police the moments they share for possible troll triggers, “or else everyone will get mad at me.”
This issue is RIFE on celebrity social media platforms. Just trawl the comments of any Kardashian sister’s Instagram and you’ll find nasty criticism you’d never imagine saying out loud, much less writing. It’s pretty abhorrent.
Research tells us that bullying on social platforms can triple the risk for conditions like depression and anxiety, so this sort of behaviour has real-life consequences for those on the receiving end. Imagine if it was happening to you every day and coming from multiple sources? Ugh.
“I become mama bear”
You might think celebs should just get on with their lives and ignore what haters say, but as Chrissy explains it hurts to have your children in the line of fire.
“As moms … we want to protect our babies,” she told TODAY. “So, people can say anything about me, but if it gets into the kids, I become mama bear.”
Same-same, CT. Same-same.
Now let’s look at the sweet and pure video of Miles and Luna that Chrissy was kind enough to share with us.
