Kim Kardashian Said Spending Her Birthday With Her Kids Was 'Torture' — And Billionaire Or Not, Other Moms Agree
Being a mom can be overwhelming regardless of your tax bracket.
DFree / Shutterstock The most recent episode of "The Kardashians" featured Kris Jenner and Kim Kardashian having a candid conversation on motherhood, boundaries, and family obligations that didn’t resonate with other moms in the ways Kim may have expected it to.
Kim Kardashian said that spending her birthday with her kids made her feel ‘tortured,’ and now, she’s getting criticized for wanting what most moms want: time to themselves.
Kim reclined on her momager’s couch and complained that she didn’t get to spend her birthday by herself, which is all she really wanted.
“I thought [on] my birthday, I’d have the day to myself,” she said, expressing the not-so-secret desire for alone time that moms around the world crave.
“I was stuck doing everything that everyone else wanted to do,” she continued. “I was stuck watching YouTube unboxing videos on my birthday. I had a FIFA tournament, Color Me Mine — you should see the ugly thing I made.”
“Like, this is not what I wanted to be doing on my birthday,” Kim declared.
She delineated the differences between celebrating Mother’s Day versus birthdays, saying, “I need to sit my kids down and be like, ‘This isn’t Mother’s Day, like, this is my day. Do you think a mom wants to go to Color Me Mine one more time? On her birthday? Whose birthday is it?'”
In a strange twist, Kris acted as the voice of reason compared to Kim’s diatribe against kid-centric birthdays. In a confessional, she explained that part of parenting requires putting your kids’ needs ahead of your own, even on your birthday.
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“I think that we’ve all, as moms, been through some days where we don’t want to be doing what we’re doing, but we do it for our kids, so come on, Kim, suck it up and do a little Color Me Mine,” Kris said.
While all parents deserve time away from their kids, Kim’s not-so-subtle overshare created waves of backlash against her.
Public opinion seems to be leaning away from validating Kim’s experience in favor of keeping certain feelings quiet, especially when those feelings could easily make her kids feel bad in a very public forum for wanting to be with their mom on her birthday.
Everyone deserves a break from the daily grind of raising kids, even beauty mogul billionaires.
Kim’s unpopular opinion shows that even wealthy moms with major amounts of privilege and support aren’t immune from being burnt out by parenting.
Being a mom is hard, even if you have a team of nannies and a household staff and more money than is conscionable for one lifetime on Earth.
But no matter how hard she tries to seem like it, Kim Kardashian just isn’t like most other moms. At this juncture of the blurred genre that is Kim’s life and career, being on the wrong side of trying to seem relatable is par for the course.
Yet Kim’s birthday wishes to be alone raise a larger issue about parenting in America, specifically about how unsustainable and imbalanced the demands of motherhood are.
Moms are expected to give their full selves to their families and be endlessly grateful that they get to do so.
They’re expected to show up as perfect parents at all times, without complaining, without taking a moment to breathe or using the bathroom by themselves or having any needs outside of motherhood, at all.
Kim might not be making any new fans for saying what she really wanted for her birthday, but at least she’s not hiding how she feels, which, in the end, is almost universal.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.