Mum who was shamed by a stranger in an airport hits back at her critics

A mum who was shamed by a stranger who took a picture of her baby lying on the floor at the airport while she texted on her phone has hit back at her critics.

The photo was uploaded online last year and quickly went viral with some slamming the mother for allowing her baby to lie on the floor, while others jumped to her defence.

But now, Molly Lensing, the woman who appeared in the picture has revealed that there was more to the story than meets the eye.

Speaking to Today.com, the mum-of-three explained that she felt her privacy had been violated by the sharing of the image and that people shouldn’t be so quick to judge.

“We had the unfortunate luck of being stuck in the middle of the Delta computer shut-down,” she said, going on to explain that as a result of her flights being delayed and rebooked, she had spent 20 hours in airports with her, then two-month old baby.

“Anastasia had been held or in her carrier for many hours. My arms were tired. She needed to stretch. And I had to communicate with all the family members wondering where the heck we were,” she said.

The paediatric nurse said the photo made her a target of online abuse from people who accused her of being a “terrible parent.”

But aside from it not being very pleasant to be on the receiving end of hurtful comments about your parenting skills, Molly also feared the backlash would affect her job if her boss or a co-worker saw it.

Thankfully, though, it has not had any negative impact on her career.

In finally having the opportunity to tell her side of the story, the mum wants to warn others against shaming on social media without context.

“Here’s to all the millennial mums who have been shamed for being normal!” she wrote on her Facebook page last week.

And despite the image still haunting her, Molly knows that she was simply striving to be the best mum she could be, and knew within herself she is raising her girls the best she can.

Here, here.

Mum-shaming seems to be quite the thing of late. Earlier this year, Kim Kardashian was slammed online about car seat safety, while Kate Beckinsale was attacked by the parenting police for daring to have a night out.

Chrissy Teigen is so used to her parenting skills being criticised she shuts down the mum shamers before she’s even been shamed.

And it’s not only mums being shamed either, dads have also found themselves being slammed by strangers.

Earlier this year Peter Andre was criticised for sharing an intimate image of his wife breastfeeding and in 2015 Ryan Reynolds was attacked by carrying his daughter the “wrong” way in a baby carrier.

But if you’ve not got Chrissy Teigen’s talent for comebacks, being targeted for trying to do your best can be hurtful, upsetting and actually pretty damaging.

If we’ve learnt anything from the Molly Lensing saga it should be that you shouldn’t judge a parent by a picture.

So lets all stop with the picky picky comments shall we? And just let everyone get on with the parenting job at hand.

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