Kourtney Kardashian is owning up to a major mistake after fans called her out for putting her 21-month-old son Rocky‘s safety at risk. After Kourtney was called out for failing to put Rocky in a life vest when the family went boating recently, she’s responding to the backlash — and not in the way many people might have expected.
It all started with a photo that Kourtney posted on Friday.
In the first photo of Kourtney’s post, she’s sitting in a boat with Rocky in her lap, all cuddled up with his mama, captioning the post “food for the soul.”
It’s an adorable photo of the mother and son, but there’s just one problem: Rocky’s not wearing a life jacket, and that can be a major danger for kids of any age, let alone one who hasn’t turned 2 years old yet.
People quickly pointed out that Rocky’s safety was at risk.
Fans wasted no time letting Kourtney know that what she was doing with Rocky was unsafe — and many didn’t mince words, either.
“No life jacket??? And the Mother of the year award goes to …” one person wrote, while another commented, “Just take hitting one wave, or another boat hitting yours, and that baby would sink right to the bottom of the lake. Is it really worth the risk?”
Others took a more gentle approach, with one commenter writing, “Woah! Be careful. One bad “bump” and ur little one can end up in the water without a life preserver … stay safe.”
Water safety is extremely important.
According to the CDC, more kids between the ages of 1-4 die from drowning than any cause, with 4,000 people dying from drowning each year in the United States?
So what should you do in order to keep kids safe in the water? Of course, supervision while they’re in the water is absolutely necessary, and swimming lessons from a young age are a great idea. And as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) points out, coast guard approved personal flotation devices are essential, too — in fact, they’re required by many states in the US anytime you’re spending time in open water.
Fortunately, Kourtney took the criticism very well.
As People reported, Kourtney shared her response to the criticism in a post on her Instagram Stories that has since expired.
“Update: bought a life vest that fits!” she wrote. “Good looking out. Honestly didn’t think about some of the dangers. Thank you for making me aware and hopefully this helps make other mommies aware of the dangers of certain types of boating without a life vest.”
This sounds like the happiest ending to this story we could have imagined. Good for Kourtney for seeing that her followers were just looking out for her and her son’s safety.
