Traveling with children is not for the faint of heart, as any mother will tell you. Molly Lensing, a mother of three from Illinois, couldn’t agree more with this solid counsel.
A photo of Molly and her two-month-old daughter was taken without her knowledge or permission while she was driving home from a visit to see family.
While waiting in the airport, the mother can be seen making a quick call on her phone. Her newborn infant is (safely) laying on her back on the floor in front of her, and a stranger is staring at the baby with contempt throughout that split second.
All of these circumstances combined to create a one-of-a-kind mom-shaming scenario, one that presented Molly as a mother who is more interested in a piece of technology than her own child.
Molly was publicly chastised for caring more about her cell phone than her infant when the photo was quickly posted and shared on the Internet. Each retweeted post was more judgmental than the one before it.
The narrative of how Molly and her two-month-old daughter, Anastasia, ended up detained in Denver International Airport due to a Delta Airlines computer outage is left out of the viral meme.
Molly and Anastasia endured more than 20 hours in airports as their flights were repeatedly delayed, canceled, re-booked, and re-booked.
“For several hours, Anastasia had been held or in her carrier. My arms were worn out. Molly told TODAY parents that she needed to stretch. “And I had to speak with the rest of the family, who were all wondering where we were.”
Molly, a pediatric nurse, didn’t find out about the humiliating and insulting comments that were being shared with her photo until a few months after her dreadful vacation experience.
“I’d just started working on a labor and delivery floor, and I was scared that if my coworkers or employer saw the photo and remarks, they’d think I shouldn’t work with babies anymore.” This, thankfully, never happened.”
Apart from the photo being a complete invasion of her privacy, I can’t help but think that there are FAR worse things that might have happened in this image to make Molly the “careless mother” that the Internet has constantly portrayed her as.
The baby was resting flat on the floor, safe and well. She wasn’t strewn across a suitcase or another airport chair, or anywhere else that would be dangerous for an infant.
Molly was, in fact, staring at her phone. She isn’t the first mother to glance away for a short second from her child, and she certainly won’t be the last. But that isn’t a justification to put her down.
After seeing Molly’s portrait being put to shame again, mommy blogger Mary Katherine Backstrom summed it best in a recent Facebook post:
Molly was publicly chastised for caring more about her cell phone than her infant when the photo was quickly posted and shared on the Internet. Each retweeted post was more judgmental than the one before it.
The narrative of how Molly and her two-month-old daughter, Anastasia, ended up detained in Denver International Airport due to a Delta Airlines computer outage is left out of the viral meme.
Molly and Anastasia endured more than 20 hours in airports as their flights were repeatedly delayed, canceled, re-booked, and re-booked.
“For several hours, Anastasia had been held or in her carrier. My arms were worn out. Molly told TODAY parents that she needed to stretch. “And I had to speak with the rest of the family, who were all wondering where we were.”
Molly, a pediatric nurse, didn’t find out about the humiliating and insulting comments that were being shared with her photo until a few months after her dreadful vacation experience.
“I’d just started working on a labor and delivery floor, and I was scared that if my coworkers or employer saw the photo and remarks, they’d think I shouldn’t work with babies anymore.” This, thankfully, never happened.”
Apart from the photo being a complete invasion of her privacy, I can’t help but think that there are FAR worse things that might have happened in this image to make Molly the “careless mother” that the Internet has constantly portrayed her as.
The baby was resting flat on the floor, safe and well. She wasn’t strewn across a suitcase or another airport chair, or anywhere else that would be dangerous for an infant.
Molly was, in fact, staring at her phone. She isn’t the first mother to glance away for a short second from her child, and she certainly won’t be the last. But that isn’t a justification to put her down.
After seeing Molly’s portrait being put to shame again, mommy blogger Mary Katherine Backstrom summed it best in a recent Facebook post:
“I am powerless compared to the Internet, and I know that I am the best momma to my girls and I know that I cherish them and am raising them the best I can.”
