What to Know
Rumer Willis has been a single mom to her 2-year-old daughter, Louetta, for more than a year after she and her baby’s father, Derek Richard Thomas, went their separate ways in 2024. Of course, this change has come with plenty of new struggles, but her recent claim that she works four jobs to support Lou — despite the fact that she happens to be the daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis — has her social media followers raising their eyebrows.
It all started with an Instagram Reel.
In the video, Rumer is holding several different items in her hands while text all around her describes all the things she does all day. The top of the video reads “single moms be like.”
According to her post, she’s trying to juggle tasks like laundry, working out, dating, sleeping, organizing playdates, and drinking enough water, writing in her caption that “the to do list is never ending.”
After she said she heard from “quite a few uninformed and rude people in my comments,” Rumer added more detail in her Stories.
“I work 4 different jobs to provide for my daughter. I am the sole provider for her. I don’t live off a trust fund or get money from my parents. Most of the time I don’t have help with her. So how about y’all pause before you judge and assume,” she wrote in the since-expired post, via People.
People didn’t have much sympathy for Rumer’s struggle.
While some people cheered Rumer on in her comments, many more others were critical of her post — including single moms out there who weren’t born into famous and wealthy families.
“Working single moms be the same while also being away for 8 hrs a day,” said one of the most liked comments on the post.
Another mom chimed in, “I’m sure the intentions were meant to be good, inclusive and siding with other single mothers, but it landed as tone deaf. Having to work and having to provide a roof over you and your child’s head AND leave the house to go to work are totally worlds apart. The list for most single mothers isn’t filled with as much self care as you give yourself.”
She later returned with another message.
After a beat, it seems like Rumer took some time to reflect on her nepo baby privilege, because later that same day, she returned with a gentler explanation of what she meant by her post.
“I am very aware that I have privileges in my life that many people don’t, and I don’t take that for granted,” she wrote. “I know there are realities I will never fully experience, and I respect that. But this particular post wasn’t about privilege or comparing circumstances, and it feels like people are assuming I was ignoring that when that wasn’t the conversation I was trying to have.”
No matter who you are, the single mom struggle is real, and there’s no real point in comparing everyone’s experiences, since they’re all so different. But good for Rumer for acknowledging that she may have it easier than many other moms out there.
