When you’re a parent, you often find and implement anything that makes parenting easier. Maybe it’s a list of tried and true tips from other parents. Or maybe it’s something you’ve figured out on your own. No matter how you found it, if it works, you may want to share it with other parents. One random mom on the internet did just that.
But as a white mom of Black kids, she didn’t think about the optics of feeding her kids straight off of a public table. And now, she’s being dragged mercilessly for choosing to share it on social media.
The mom had a useful parenting hack.
Or so she thought. In a video shared by the Instagram account @badparentingtv, the white mom can be seen sharing a helpful feeding hack.
“My No. 1 hack as a mom of triplets: Food scissors!” she wrote in the video. “They stay in my diaper bag, making eating on the go so easy and fast!”
She can be seen taking a slice of pizza off a plate and cutting it up, putting the bite-sized pieces in front of her three toddlers. There is no information about the mom or her daughters, but the girls are visibly Black.
People had a lot of strong feelings about the video.
While the hack may be useful, many people took issue with the fact that the mom, who is in a big box store with the girls, didn’t put their food on a plate. Instead, she just cuts the pizza up and puts it directly on the table.
“Even if she wiped it down first , they have free plates,” one person commented on the post.
Another commenter added: “Whether she disinfected table or not this is not cool. The kids aren’t dogs.”
Many commenters took issue with her not using a plate even though they’re easy to get.
“Bet if it was a dog they’d have a plate,” one comment reads.
One commenter asked, “Why you making these beautiful babies eat off that nasty table.”
Another commenter shared a similar sentiment writing: “I’m just mad coz there’s a whole plate there they coulda all shared it off. Wtf.”
“What on that germy table,” someone else wrote. “Could have least put paper napkins or plates there. Even dogs and cats get a bowl.”
“Gross that she has them eating off a table like that,” another comment reads. “Who freaking knows what’s been on there.”
A lot of commenters also pointed out the fact that she was a white mom to Black children.
“Is this racist?” one person wondered. “White woman gets a plate but three little black girls have to eat off the nasty table?”
“This is why it’s best to stay in your own community, never culture clash,” someone else suggested.
Another commenter quipped, “By the skin color can I can say it adds up.”
“When you have white mother and black kids…very sad…” a commenter lamented.
“Why must their ‘parenting hacks’ always be at the expense of Black children’s dignity?” another person questioned.
