Any mom can tell you that the parenting police are no joke. A lot of us have faced unnecessarily tough criticism over parenting choices we've made — and even celebrities are not immune. But even though most of us make the many tiny decisions a parent is faced with each day from the privacy of our own families, homes, and neighborhoods, celebs are constantly under a microscope to the point where seemingly mundane choices sometimes land them in the hot seat. Not all of them sit back and take it, though.
Celebrities such as Pink and Hilary Duff have had no problem standing up for themselves when the parenting police are on attack. And honestly, who can blame them? Parenting is hard, and none of us get it right all the time. Unless a celebrity is literally endangering their child or children, everyone should probably just zip it and keep their opinions to themselves.
We are all for it when a celeb parent decides to stand up to mom shamers because they're people too, and if any of our parenting skills were under that kind of scrutiny, we know we'd probably crumble. Honestly, we can only hope we'd defend ourselves as fiercely as them. We stan for all of these celebs who have clapped back at the parenting police over the years.
Pink
Pink has come under fire for her parenting choices on multiple occasions, but one of the most ridiculous was in 2018 when some of her followers took issue with the fact that she took her son to the zoo. You know, a normal family outing.
"Zoos are the ultimate example of human depravity and selfishness," commented one person. Pink responded by saying, "I don't remember asking you for your opinion or for your help in raising my child. This isn't the place for a debate. Call CNN or call the zoo."
Hilary Duff
Hilary Duff preemptively clapped back about the criticism she knew she would receive for choosing to pierce her infant daughter Mae's ears. She posted a photo of her adorable baby on her Instagram story, along with the caption, "Yes! I pierced her ears today. Can't wait for the internet to call me a child abuser — again." She had already experienced backlash with her first daughter, Banks, so she nipped it in the bud before it even happened.
Kourtney Kardashian
Apparently, Kourtney Kardashian is not allowed to go on vacation without her kids. She posted a photo of herself eating bread on a boat, and followers chimed in, apparently "concerned" for her children. One fan asked, "Where are your kids?" to which Kourtney bluntly responded: "My son was taking the photo, and the other two were sitting at a table across from me. Thank you so much for your concern."
Khloé Kardashian
In 2019, a social media follower accused Khloé Kardashian of using her daughter, True, as an "accessory." Khloé was having none of that and defiantly replied: "Would you like a parent NOT to create memories and traditions with their child? Would you like someone else to watch my child and me to do these things on my own? I am her mother, and we will celebrate life together everyday. True and I are creating magical memories TOGETHER FOREVER."
Chrissy Teigen
Chrissy Teigen is always coming under fire for something, but possibly the most disappointing thing people have criticized her for is breastfeeding — well, for posting photos of herself breastfeeding. In 2018, a follower on Instagram wrote that no one "cared" to see her nursing her child. "I don't care to see grainy fireworks, coachella selfies, or infinity pool pics but I let people live. calm your t–s and scroll on by," Chrissy snapped back.
Kristin Cavallari
Reality TV star Kristin Cavallari once caught heat when she posted a photo of her son and people thought his spine was too bony. They accused her of not feeding him enough. "Yep, I starve my children. Just blocked the most people I've ever blocked in my entire life," she responded to the accusations.
Jessie James Decker
Singer Jessie James Decker addressed critics of her choice to have a glass of wine while breastfeeding in an interview with Us Weekly. "I have three children. I know what I'm doing now. And it's totally OK to toast to a celebration and have a drink while you're breastfeeding," she said, and according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this is totally true!
Gabrielle Union
When actress Gabrielle Union's baby Kaavia was born in 2018, she posted the sweetest video of her gently kissing the little one. But believe it or not, social media trolls told her it was bad to kiss a baby on the mouth. "Our mouths are filthy. Babies can't fight those germs every day," one person wrote.
Gabrielle was not having the nonsense, though. "Hey guys, I appreciate all the concern about kisses on the mouth. Kaav is healthy, and I don't even touch her without washing and sanitizing myself and everything and everyone that comes into contact with her," she shared.
Andy Cohen
Bravo host Andy Cohen was given a hard time by fans who DMed him after he shared a video of his dog ripping up his then-newborn son's toy. "OK, flooded with DMs from people saying I've got a big problem on my hands — Wacha's jealous of my son," the 50-year-old dad said.
"Wacha didn't know that the Torah toy belonged to the baby. He just had his eye on a purple toy and he wanted to rip it apart. It's not that deep. Stand down. Everything's fine in the West Village," Andy huffed on his Instagram story.
Alexa PenaVega
Alexa PenaVega recently shared on social media that her toddler son lost his finger after she accidentally closed it in a door, but people assumed that she had slammed the door angrily. But that wasn't the case at all.
"After seeing the comments about people questioning my parenting and assuming I slammed a door in a fit of rage … absolutely not. I simply closed the door. I know I will never be able to please everyone and people will be ugly to be ugly … and for those people, all I can do is pray for them," she wrote in response on her Instagram story.
Ayesha Curry
Poor Ayesha Curry. Some of her followers came for her when she posted a cute video with her daughter, whose hair was messy (like a normal kid's). "Lawwd have mercy, whyyy don't you know how to brush them girls' hair??? Drives me nuts!!!" one person commented.
Ayesha was quick to clap back. "I don't make moments happen for Instagram. Moments happen, and I sometimes share," she wrote. "I'm not going to doll my children up for perception or anyone's approval on here. If that's what you want to see, then this is not the page for you. Real life over here."
Dax Shepard
In 2018, comedian, actor, and podcaster Dax Shepard admitted that he had told his then-5-year-old daughter that Santa wasn't real. He said he got tired of "lying, lying, lying," to which other parents responded by accusing him of calling other parents liars. He took to Twitter to shut down the nonsense with this tweet.
Shay Mitchell
Shay Mitchell attended rapper Drake's birthday party when her daughter was still a newborn, and some of her fans were not happy about it — not that it was any of their business. "Mother of the year award right here!! As if you seriously could leave your baby to go party?!!! I hope the child's aid look into this and your abilities to be a good parent, 'cause d—!!! Lacking some serious skills there sweety! #selfish," wrote one commenter.
Shay couldn't help issuing a sarcastic response to the scathing message. "I haven't been really checking my comments that often, but apparently people are really upset that I left three days after having a kid to go out and party. It wasn't three days, and I left her with [my dog] Angel," she wrote.
Alyssa Milano
Alyssa Milano has been a breastfeeding advocate for years, and when her children were younger, she sometimes posted photos of them nursing. In 2016, she got into a spat with talk show host Wendy Williams (who doesn't even have children) because Wendy pointed out that some of the photos caused people to say that Alyssa had shown too much skin. "I'm opinionated. I don't need to see that. Because I just don't want to," Wendy said.
Alyssa was clearly irritated. She replied, "Would you eat under a blanket?" and asked why it was okay to see someone like Miley Cyrus' breast in a picture, but not a breastfeeding mother's. "Biologically, they're not made for sexual things, that's what we've done to them."
Kim Kardashian
No, guys! Kim Kardashian definitely did not have her baby's eyebrows waxed. But some people really believed she did when her first child, North, was an infant. Kim sent this sarcastic tweet to show people exactly how ridiculous they were to make such a silly accusation — and that was that.
Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer was given a really hard time by some of her followers when she did a stand-up show two weeks after giving birth to her first child. She was totally mom-shamed, and she wasn't going to let it slide. The next day, she posted a photo on Instagram of her sitting on the side of her bed pumping breast milk with the caption, "Sending out love to all the moms shaming me for doing stand-up last night #schumerpumprules."
