Jaime King is sick of all the 'mommy judging'

by

Carolyn Robertson

posted in Celebrities

Jaime King has a message for all you moms out there: The judgment and criticism have got to stop!

The 'Hart of Dixie' star, who overcame years of infertility to have her son James Knight in 2013, says motherhood is "hard enough" without everyone telling you you're doing it all wrong.

“There is so much mommy judging and so many rules and regulations. ‘You have to breastfeed‘ or ‘If you formula feed, you’re bad,’” she tells PEOPLE. “There are so many labels now of what you should or shouldn’t do and I think that is really harmful to mothers.”

Like many first-time moms, it sounds like Jaime struggled with the transition to motherhood: “Birthing a child and caring for a child is already difficult in itself,” the 35-year-old star points out. “Women think that what they’re going through on the inside isn’t supposed to exist anymore, but that’s just not true. We’re just women, doing the best that we can with what we know and what we have.”

These famous moms have felt judged for their parenting decisions...

When I became a mom I guess I thought I'd be joining some secret club, a tight-knit community of women supporting each other, celebrating milestones and commiserating when things don't go according to plan. To some extent I did find that here at BabyCenter. What I didn't expect, though, was the judgment that comes with motherhood. I didn't realize that everyone would have an opinion on how I feed my baby, how I put her to sleep, which way her car seat faces on a drive down to the store.

Jaime's advice to new moms is to stay away from the folks who are casting judgment - “For God’s sake, don’t go on chats on the Internet and compare your parenting skills to someone else,” she says - and instead surround yourself with people who love and support you.

“It doesn’t have to be other mothers,” she says. “Don’t judge yourself if you aren’t taking your kid to a baby class every day and don’t judge yourself if you have a bunch of best friends who aren’t parents. Just find people that love and support you so that you can support yourself and your child.”

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