Mom Criticized For Cooking Her Children A 'Mom Slop' Dinner That Didn't Include Vegetables
People accused her of being a bad mom based on a single meal.
Andrea Piacquadio | Pexels As a parent, it can be challenging to ensure your children are eating the correct amount of nutrition in every meal. Proteins, fruit, vegetables, grains, dairy — all are needed. Yet, between picky eating habits and the never-ending responsibilities of a parent, it can be difficult to make every single meal up to par.
Maja Barnes, a mom who shares videos of the meals that she makes for her three toddlers under the name The Polish Mom, recently received an influx of backlash after showing a particular meal that she made for her kids — one that commenters insisted was not nutritious enough.
The mom was criticized for cooking her children a 'mom slop' dinner that didn't include vegetables.
Barnes, a stay-at-home mother, posted a video of her cooking Cajun sausage and chicken pasta for her three children. The dish featured chicken, sausage, cheese, and noodles covered in a homemade sauce.
Serving the meal to her children, they seemed more than pleased to be eating it, but people on the internet, as usual, had something to say about Barnes' cooking.
"She has time to do her hair and make/edit this video, but not to cook a healthy meal for her children," one commenter wrote. "Looks like there are no vegetables in the United States," another added.
"Being a stay-at-home mom and still feeding this kind of food to your kids is crazy behavior," a third user wrote.
Commenters questioned Barnes' parenting, equating the meal she cooked to giving her children drugs and alcohol.
The mom urged commenters to stop judging other parents.
The mom responded to some of the negative comments, reminding people that they shouldn't judge her parenting from a one-minute video.
"I had so much going on," she said. "Did I include a vegetable? No. And that’s OK ― I offered them produce throughout the day."
"Please, let’s stop this sad trend of judging other moms. A lot of toddlers are super picky and won’t touch a lot of things. I’ve been super picky myself," she continued. "Kindness doesn’t cost anything."
Most parents know that dinner isn't always going to be a glamorous meal that features all of the important nutritional elements in one sitting. Parents should be allowed to have moments where they prioritize ease and convenience over what others deem as perfection.
Commenters shared times during their own childhoods in which their parents simply ordered pizza or threw some frozen chicken nuggets in the oven — not a vegetable in sight, yet they turned out OK.
A working mom defended the 'mom slop' dinner against the onslaught of criticism.
Writer and mom Marlo Slaybeck tweeted in defense of Barnes, writing, "This is called 'mom slop' — it’s the backbone of every civilization’s greatest culinary achievements."
She added that the crockpot, which Barnes used in her video, is a connection to "generations upon generations of women who hastily mixed ingredients together" to feed their families, and pointed to dishes from various cultures across the world that can fit into the "mom slop" category.
While speaking with HuffPost, Slaybeck said, "Although some might think 'mom slop' sounds totally unappetizing, I think there’s an ancestral memory it conjures up for so many people, of meals moms have whipped together in haste but with the almost scientific mastery of what ingredients she can pull together that’ll taste good and satisfy the appetites of several people."
Barnes told the publication that her only goal in sharing videos of her cooking on social media is to reflect the realistic aspect of being a mom. She admitted that she's learned to be "creative with ingredients," and growing up, her parents didn't have a lot of money, so all of the food in the house had to be used up before they went grocery shopping.
"I used to be an army spouse, and I learned how to make meals on a budget. You will find a lot of easy meal ideas on my page," she continued. "It is crazy to me that people can put other people down just for trying to make a meal."
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor’s degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.