PSA: Megan Fox is well aware that she is a mother of three. She does not need a random stranger on Instagram to remind her. And yet, people keep feeling the need to point it out.
Yesterday, the actor shared a series of selfies on Instagram with the caption, “Pick me energy.” The photos were pretty benign — she was sitting on a swing and reading Moon Spells — and could arguably have been taken in the span of 60 seconds. And still, a follower insisted on asking, “Where your kids at?”
Fox, who shares three kids with her ex, Brian Austin Green, seemed to have had enough with this particular line of questioning. “Wait wait wait. I … have kids?!?” Fox responded. “Oh my god, I knew I forgot something!! Quick, someone call the valet at the Beverly Hills hotel. That’s the last place I remember seeing them. Maybe someone turned them into lost and found.”
This is, unsurprisingly, not the first time Fox has been subjected to this particular brand of mommy shaming. She previously spoke about the judgment she faced as a single mother who shares custody of her kids, telling InStyle last year that she’s constantly bombarded with people asking her where her kids are when she’s photographed with her fiancé Machine Gun Kelly. “Do you ask their dad when he’s out? No, because you don’t expect a dad to be with the kids all the time, but I’m expected to not be seen and be at home with my kids,” she said. “They have another parent. I have to leave and sometimes I don’t want them to be photographed and they don’t come with me.”
Fox isn’t the only woman in Hollywood to have received such criticism. Olivia Wilde, who coincidentally also co-parents her kids with a famous ex and is currently in a high-profile relationship with a younger musician, pointed out the double standard she experiences in an interview this summer. “When people see me not with my kids, it’s always ‘How dare she,’” Wilde told Variety. “I’ve never seen anyone say that about a guy. And if he is with his kid, he’s a fucking hero.” In an Elle profile published last week, the Don’t Worry Darling director said some critics act “like my kids are just somewhere in a hot car without me,” adding, “You know why you don’t see me with my kids? Because I don’t let them get photographed. Do you know the lengths that I go to to protect my kids from being seen by you?”