A man in a Colorado airport decided to take a photo of a mom browsing her phone while her young infant was wiggling on a blanket on the ground in front of her a few years ago, and his original post, which has since been deleted, read something like “Albert Einstein said that he fears the day when technology will take on our humanity and that the world will be populated by a generation of idiots”.
Yeah, when there’s no context, background, or any kind of an explanation, it does look like the mom is uninterested in her child and she would rather scroll through social media while her baby is on the floor.
However, was that the truth?
Well, once the photo gained a lot of popularity on the internet, and her parenting skills were questioned by thousands of strangers who called her an “idiot” and a “terrible parent”, the mom decided to tell Today the whole story.
At the moment the photo was taken, the mom’s flights had been delayed for almost an entire day, and her infant daughter Anastasia had been held or in her carrier for almost 20 hours. The baby needed to stretch, and the mom’s arms were tired, so that’s why she put the baby on the blanket. And as for the cellphone, the mom had to communicate with her family who was wondering where they are.
Not so easy to blame the mother now, is it?
The thing is that it shouldn’t matter that Lensing happened to have a “good explanation” and she decided to step up and tell her story in an interview. Mom shaming has got to stop!
The stranger that took the photo didn’t ask for her permission, did not know the woman, and had absolutely no idea what was going on.
A recent study has shown that almost 70% of moms have been criticized to some degree for their parenting decisions, and people seem to question almost everything.
Breastfeeding in public, using formula instead of breastfeeding, letting your kids use technology, not letting them use technology, you name it.
The reality is that sure, there are a few hard rights and wrongs when it comes to parenting, and most of them are very obvious, but the gray areas are the problem.
However, almost every parent loves their children and believes they are raising them the best they can, and it’s really all any of us can really do, so maybe we should give each other a bit of slack.
