What’s up?
It’s Emile Ennis Jr. here with Clevver News and Jada Pinkett Smith just got real about
how she was mom shamed for things like homeschooling her kids, which led to Willow and Jaden feeling
shunned by their community as well allowing Willow to shave her head.
This week’s episode of Red Table Talk recently dropped and Willow, Jada, and Adrienne were
joined by Ashley Graham and Jessica Alba to discuss mom shaming.
Jada kicked off the episode by talking about this New York Times article that dropped last
month titled ‘Mom Shaming Is Running Rampant During the Pandemic.’
The article discussed how this new normal, when it comes to whether or not you are sending
your kids back to school or continuing online education, has created a whole new wave of
judgement amongst mom groups.
The piece also explains that no matter what, sometimes there is no right answer and moms
have been called everything from reckless to selfish for the decisions they’ve made
during the pandemic.
And so, mom shaming became a hot topic for the ladies to discuss at the Red Table.
But before the celebrity guests joined the red table trio, Jada opened up about her experience
with mom shaming.
She revealed that her first experience with public mom shaming was when Willow decided
to shave her head.
“Over the years, I have had my fair share of mom shaming ok, you sure have.
With Willow, I think the first time I got hard core criticism was when you first cut
your hair, I mean there was a firestorm.”
Willow chimed in about how it made her feel for her mom to get shamed for her hair cut
and she brought up another reason Jada received backlash for her parenting.
“It honestly makes me like go like this because it was a constant.
A constant.
And even how you decided to educate us.
You had two parents that worked, so I got shamed for homeschooling so that you could
be with us.
I would’ve gotten shamed for leaving you and not being with you yeah.”
All three women spoke about how in certain situations like these, you just can’t win
as a parent.
Adrienne chimed in and said how stressed out the mom shaming made her saying quote, “These
people are talking about your children that they don’t even know.
They made you guys out to be these brats, these Hollywood brats, you were never that.
Ever.”
Jada went on to talk about how she decided to raise her kids differently and for her
community in particular, it was something new.
And Willow opened up about how this shaming for being different impacted her and her brother
Jaden.
“Specifically with the African American community I kinda felt like me and Jaden were
like shunned a little bit, we're not gonna take pride in them because they're too different.
Even some of our family members, I would feel they thought, 'You're too different.'”
Willow recalled being at events and interviewers would say things about the way she looked
like “your mom let you come out like that” or “it’s not your fault, your mother should’ve
taught you better.”
And while it was difficult at the time, Jada has learned to tune out a lot of the mom shaming
noise from the public.
She said quote, “When people are like, 'I can't believe you shaved Willow's head,' if
they could have seen this child's expression of freedom, looking at her hair falling to
the ground.
Me as a mom looking at that, experiencing that with her, there's nothing anyone could
say to me to tell me that it was wrong.”
When Ashley Graham and Jessica Alba joined the conversation, they both connected with
Jada over being mom shamed for breastfeeding in public.
Ashley spoke about sharing a photo breastfeeding her son and said quote, “It never feels
good to have someone tell you you're not doing a good enough job, that you're doing something
wrong.
Sure enough, I got mom shamed.”
Jessica Alba chimed in saying “You're damned if you do, damned if you don't.
I fed [my son] at Target.
I just needed to get out of the dang house, especially by the third one!”
And they all discussed how even if you aren’t in the public eye, women get mom shamed all
the time within friend groups, school groups, and even families.
Ashley said “Mommy shamers are just mean girls that grew up to be mothers” and everyone
agreed.
Fans were quick to respond to this entire conversation down in the comments.
One person wrote “I love this conversation.As a full time working, single mom, its hard
enough battling my own mommy guilt without other peoples input.
Stay strong fellow mommas...you're doing great!
Thank you RTT”
Another fan agreed saying “As a mom, I believe we do our very best.
Our children did not come with a manual!”
This person chimed in adding “People need to mind their own business.
Social media has created an environment where people feel empowered to comment on other
people’s lives, especially in negative ways.”
And this fan wrote “Mom's everywhere just need to do the best they can.
We are living in some scary crazy times.
Women need to support each other.”
We’re glad that they had this important conversation on Red Table Talk and hopefully
it will make people think twice before they shame someone else’s parenting.
For more on the Smith family, click right over here to find out what Willow thought
of that whole entanglement situation.
Also, let us know down in the comments below what you thought of the Red Table Talk mom
shaming conversation.
I’m your host Emile Ennis Jr., bye guys!