Ah, mom-shaming. It seems no public figure (or mere mortals for that matter) can escape it. Luckily, many moms are quick to stand up to mom-shamers and continue to happily go about their business.
Actress Shay Mitchell, who had her first child, Atlas, in early October, recently opened up about parenting and some of the backlash she’s faced about her choices while promoting the Pampers’ Share the Love Campaign.
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“Before motherhood, I really did have this tough exterior of ‘it’s going to be great, but nothing in my life is going to change,'” Shay confessed to PopSugar at the event. “Now I’m just so obsessed. Atlas is always on my mind.”
Shay Mitchell Says None of the Mom-Shaming She’s Endured Matters
“I’m always wondering what she’s doing and how she is. That’s something that’s never going to change. Now I truly understand how my mom felt [when she had me]. I call her every day and say, ‘I’m sorry, I’m so sorry. I get how when you woke up at night for me!,’ because Atlas isn’t going to be able to go anywhere without me knowing.”
Mitchell has had many wonderful moments with Atlas so far, but she’s also experienced some negative commentary online. However, as she told PopSugar, she hasn’t let it negatively affect her.
“Honestly, none of the mom-shaming matters,” she said. “The only thing that matters is when I come home and I see Atlas’s face and I know that I’m doing the best job that I can for her. I don’t really care [about anything else].”
Some of the negativity came after she went out for a date night with boyfriend Matte Babel when Atlas was just three weeks old. “I remember going out for my first time three weeks after Atlas was born. I deserved a night out. I don’t regret it. I’d do it again. People were like, ‘How dare you. You’re the worst mother.'”
“But I couldn’t have cared less because I came home to Atlas’s face, knowing that she’d been sleeping the whole time, and even if she hadn’t! We deserve to continue to feel like ourselves and do things that feel right to us, and everybody is different. It’s more upsetting when I see [shaming] get to other people.”
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Now Mitchell is encouraging other parents to do things for themselves every once in a while, regardless of what other people may think.