Please stop this Mum bashing
Parenting

Please stop Mum bashing us

Last week I stumbled across an article online published by OK magazine about the way that Binky Felstead (Made in Chelsea star) held her baby. Apparently she was holding her incorrectly. She’s a new Mum, and I’m pretty sure she wasn’t holding her baby incorrectly at all. I hate to think about the worry that this might have added to already being a new Mum, and how she might have asked friends and family to check how she held her baby, and the level of self doubt and anxiety that this could have caused. People out there, please stop bashing us Mums.

It’s happening too often. It’s not just OK magazine, you only need to pick up a copy of the Daily Mail to see someone Mum bashing, slagging Mums off for no reason, just because they disagree with something. The problem with this is that so many other people then jump on the bandwagon and start a barrage of hate in the comments or on social media.

I’ve seen and heard about people bashing Mums who breastfeed in public, who choose to formula feed, who wean early, who put their baby in their own room before they are six months old. The list is endless, and it is frightening that everyone including people who are not parents (and dare I say parents too), like to give their tuppence worth and state their opinions.

It really needs to stop. I can speak first hand at how hard it is to be a new Mum, and just to be a Mum in general. We live in a world where our lives are portrayed on social media, where Google can scare the daylights out of us, and where we are constantly doubting ourselves and wondering if we are doing anything right.

Instead what we need is people to be supportive, to tell us that we are doing great no matter how we are feeding the baby, and to offer us positivity and advice rather than their negative opinions. After childbirth women are flooded with hormones making us feel emotionally, anxious and sometimes depressed, the last thing that we need is negativity and hate that could amplify those feelings.

So please people let’s all be a little more supportive of us Mum’s. If you see a Mum struggling to feed their baby, or who is drinking their third coffee that morning because they barely slept the night before, or even having a glass of wine in the afternoon whilst they breastfeed their baby. Don’t judge them, you have no idea what sort of day or night she has had. Please remember that could be you one day, on a day when you are needing a little bit of encouragement, support, and a hug (or wine).

Being a Mum is hard work, it’s not easy. All that matters is that you and your baby are happy and healthy, and no one has a right to judge or comment on that. So, Binky I hope you’ve taken that OK Magazine article with a pinch of salt, and swiftly brushed it off.

Rant over.

Claire x

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