Any mother will tell you that watching her child hurt is the worst kind of pain to endure. It is impossible to describe a mom's ache when someone has shamed or embarrassed her child. A lot of moms will go into full mama bear mode and defend their children against those who harm them emotionally or physically, and rightfully so.
Thanks to social media, moms now have a much larger outlet for their feelings, and spreading the word to large audiences is much easier. Just ask Heather Taylor.
Taylor, 36, is a mom of three who shares about her life on her social media. She recently uploaded a tearful video to her TikTok, @heatherlynne80, about an alleged incident at a North Carolina Chick-fil-A that left her heartbroken. Taylor claims her 6-year-old daughter was body-shamed by an adult employee at the restaurant who should have known better.
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Taylor was with her three kids and some friends when she said something shocking happened.
Taylor explains in her TikTok, which quickly has garnered nearly 150,000 views thus far, that she was with her 8-year-old daughter, 6-year-old daughter, and 2-year-old son, as well as some friends at a Chick-fil-A in Apex, North Carolina, and the kids were playing in the restaurant's play area.
Taylor says she left her 6-year-old daughter and son with a friend while she took her oldest to the bathroom, and while she was gone, a manager at the restaurant barged in to the play area and began "berating" her 6-year-old, telling her she was "too big" to be playing in the play area.
Taylor was appalled.
Although she missed the actual interaction, her friend explained to her what happened later, and Taylor tells CafeMom the manager apparently blew right past the adults and went straight to the child.
"The manager never spoke to an adult. My friend was in the play center with my two children and her child," she says in the clip. "She interrupted the manager and asked what was going on and that she didn't need to speak to a child like that. The manager cut her off and ran out the door."
The mom takes responsibility for her mistake.
Taylor tells CafeMom her daughter is tall, and she misread the height restrictions in the play area. She understands those rules are in place for safety reasons, but she believes the manager could have handled the situation differently.
"I completely understand I missed a height requirement. My stepdad went back and took a picture, and we saw the rules. It says max height of 54". I measured her at home, and she is 54-55", she says in the clip. "At the time we entered, the door was open, and we never saw the sign, but she does technically fit the parameters, and the manager never took the time to confirm this.
"It is very valid for a manager to enforce the rules, and that is completely understandable," she continues. "What is not acceptable is to single a child out for looking different, embarrass her to the point of tears, and then refuse to speak to the adult about the situation."
Her daughter was understandably crushed.
Taylor says the interaction hurt her daughter's feelings, and the manager's words cut her deeply.
"She is incredibly upset and thinking there is something wrong with her. I was putting her to bed last night, and she said she couldn't sleep because she [was] thinking about that lady and what she said. She said she yelled at her to leave. My daughter is the most tender-hearted soul that is always thinking of others. This shook her," Taylor tells us.
She adds there is a lesson in this for everyone. "Think before you speak. If you wouldn't say it to yourself or your children, then just keep quiet. Words have an everlasting effect, and you never know how a child will process it," she says.
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Taylor says she has not received much of a response from Chick-fil-A.
She tells us she spoke with the store manager and the district manager, who happened to be at the store at the time of the alleged incident, but wasn't given much of an apology.
"I spoke to corporate this morning, and that was such a sterile conversation with an empty I'm sorry for your experience," she says.
Unsatisfied, the mom went to social media to spread the word, she tells CafeMom.
"After speaking to the manager and district manager at the store I felt very unheard, ignored and blowed off. I felt there needed to be more attention brought to the situation and hoped that TikTok could help. I was able to find a whole tribe of other mamas that have spoken such kind words over my child and supported us," she shares.
Taylor says sometimes adults need to apologize.
She wants people to understand that a big mistake was made and that sometimes, even adults need to say they're sorry.
"To your child hurting will bring out your mama bear instincts so fast. To see an adult act that way toward a child is infuriating. But also, for them to not take responsibility for their actions when they see the consequences is disheartening," she says. "We are big in our house that sometimes adults get it wrong and we have to say sorry too."
CafeMom reached out to Chick-fil-A for comment but did not receive a response.
