SARAH Chapman has revealed she was left sobbing after she was mum-shamed four times a day about how she was raising her daughter.
The model – who is expecting a second child with husband Jim – gave birth to daughter Margot in September 2021.
And she opened up about her motherhood journey on the Made By Mammas podcast, as she admitted comments from other parents saw her turning to Jim in tears.
"I just find it really odd that people feel the need to give you their opinions in such a strong way," she said.
"Don't get me wrong, I've had people message me things before that are actually valuable, and they can say it in a positive kind way.
"But then you get the opposite.
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"My daughter only started walking at 17 months and I cried and cried to my husband because the amount of people that messaged me saying, 'Your daughter must be… have you checked if she's autistic?'
"I don't want that to come across as negative to children with SEN, that's not what I mean, but I mean why are you messaging me?
"I would sob to Jim and say, 'Do I need to go and get her tested? Do we need to do more? Am I not helping her enough?'
"And my husband said, 'What are you on about? She's fine! She talks, she just doesn't walk'.
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"And my mum's there saying, 'I know kids that didn't walk until they were 20 months'.
"I was so distraught. And then there were people messaging. Honestly, at one point I was getting three or four messages a day.
"It's really, really odd."
Margot is now "tentatively" walking, but Sarah added the mum-shaming she experienced just made her person rule even more important.
"My rule that I always say – and it's my advice to anyone who's about to have a child – you've got to just do you," she said.
Elsewhere in the podcast, Sarah explained that her and Jim's decision to put Margot into nursery was also one likely to cause backlash.
"My daughter goes to nursery two days a week," she explained.
"I think that's the first time that's been admitted, out loud, on the internet, that my daughter goes to nursery.
"Because I feel like I don't want to tell anyone because they'll be so mean to me on the internet because she's not two."
Adding that they decided to send Margot to nursery because she "loves other kids", Sarah said that the staff even said to her how much she was enjoying it.
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"But equally I felt shame to admit that because so many people are like, 'Oh, you've packed your child off to nursery. You shouldn't do that, you should still be mothering them'," she said.
"I find the commentary on parenting, and how we choose to parent, honestly mind blowing."
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