Mom goes viral for dismissing the idea that daycare ‘raises your kids’

Another day, another innocuous thing the world is shaming moms for. If it isn’t how you feed or dress your kids, it’s what they play with, or who they play with, or, in today’s case, where they play. This viral video about the way moms get shamed for putting their kids in daycare is striking a serious chord, and we get it.

TikTok creator Veronica posted the clip, where she goes off about how she’s tired of the way people frame daycare as a place that raises your kids for you.

“I hate—hate—the narrative that if you send your kids to daycare, you’re not raising them,” she says in the video, which is racking up views and comments from parents who relate to her take. “I see posts on TikTok, and people are like, ‘Oh, you know, we made some sacrifices. My kid used to have fun at water day but now we go to the water park together and she’s better for it.'” 

Veronica goes on to list the reasons why this attitude is so harmful for parents.

“One: That’s not an option for every family, so stop making moms feel like crap because they send their kids to daycare,” she says. “Two: My kid frickin’ loves water day — and daycare. In fact, she gets pissed when I pick her up because she’s having fun with her friends. Three: She’s so, so smart because they teach her so many things there. So smart!”

But it’s the last reason where she really drives things home: “Four: I’m raising her. I’m instilling morals in her. I see her more than her daycare teachers see her. I can raise her and she can still have fun at school. They’re not mutually exclusive things.”

Um, yeah, we have to agree with that.

“So this narrative—this mom shame for working moms? It’s gotta go,” Veronica says at the end of her video. “It’s not cute.”

In the comments, other moms are sharing their support.

“My question to all the moms that feel that way, are they planning to stop raising their kids when they start kindergarten?” one mom asked. “like do they think they’re just done when they start 5k?”

Another weighed in, “if I’m not raising my child who is it that’s getting up with her in the middle of the night when she’s sobbing?”

And if that’s not a valid point, then what is?