Mom Defends Her Decision Not To Put A Coat On Her Daughter — Despite Having One Herself
There was snow on the ground.
We’ve most likely had one or two experiences dealing with “Karens” during public outings, whether it be them berating your parking choices or demanding to see your manager.
One woman encountered a Karen while dropping off lunch for her sister at school and brought her young daughter to tag along with her.
The Karen was less than impressed with how the woman chose to dress her daughter.
The woman berated the mother for not putting a coat on the young girl.
In a TikTok video posted by user @kuuipodawn that has been viewed over 13 million times, a mother secretly recorded a woman’s reaction to her daughter not wearing a coat — despite wearing one herself.
The video depicts Dawn’s daughter walking in front of her in a pink jumpsuit and boots. A blanket of snow covers the ground, indicating cold temperatures, but the little girl appears to be unbothered.
However, a stranger walking near the two was not.
She immediately rips into Dawn as Dawn discreetly films her. The woman off-camera can be heard saying, “What kind of a mother puts a coat on themselves, but not their daughter?” she asks.
The mother explains that they are just walking a short distance.
“We’re just walking to the car, and this is my jacket,” Dawn politely defends herself to the woman.
The woman is still not satisfied. “Are you cold?” she asks Dawn. “Cause if you are, she is! Get a coat for your kid!”
Dawn further explains herself to viewers in a textbox over her video. “We literally just dropped food off for my sister at her school and were walking back to the car when this Karen started yelling at me,” she wrote.
Some TikTok users appeared to agree with the Karen.
“Sorry I have to side with Karen and I live in Arizona,” one user commented.
“She’s right, sis. It’s literally snowing,” another user pointed out.
“Ugh, she’s so right though! Wish I had the courage to say this to so many parents,” another user commented.
However, other users argued how difficult it is to fight with toddlers to put on a coat.
Some parents posted their own videos in response to Dawn’s.
“Oh, I would’ve gone off on that lady,” TikTok user @youcancallmekait shares.
She reveals that when her daughter was a toddler, she would “scream” and “cry” if her parents attempted to put a coat on her.
She adds that her family lives in Colorado, in a particularly cold climate. “On more than one occasion we’ve been walking somewhere, and someone has commented on it,” the mother says. “With a jacket in hand, I have handed it to them and said, ‘okay, you make her wear it. Are you gonna deal with the screaming?”
She adds a couple of photos of her daughter outside in the snow without a coat on. Her daughter does not appear to be shivering or bothered by the cold, although the mother claims that she still came under fire after posting the pictures to social media.
Mother of three, Celeste Nield, also responded to Dawn’s video with her own TikTok.
She claims that the negative reactions Dawn was facing “really upset” her.
Nield argues that Dawn made the right decision for not putting a coat on her daughter since putting a child in a coat in their car seat is unsafe. “If you were to get into an accident or stop the car abruptly, their seatbelt would not be secure, and it could result in an injury or a car wreck death, which has happened because of coats and a seatbelt not being installed properly,” she says.
“So think about that the next time you see a mother not putting a child in a coat from a [short distance] to their car.”
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.