As Shveta Salve Found, The Bad Mom Label Is Easy For Women To Acquire

When will society stop judging women based on their lifestyle? Read how actress Shveta Salve slammed trolls who tried to pin the bad mom label on her.

Ahhhh….she goes out at night such a slut! She wears short clothes…such an attention seeker. She smokes and drinks, oh my god! I feel bad for her kids, such a bad mom! For every woman out there, being judged is so common that the reason don’t even matter anymore at times.

Recently, actress Shveta Salve (known for being the runner-up on popular reality show, Jhalak Dikhla Jaa) was not just judged but also trolled for sharing an Instagram story. The story showed her smoking a cigarette with a glass of wine in her hand. Hence, she was labelled as a ‘bad mom’ because she drinks and smokes and thus, is a bad influence on her child. A bunch of people deciding what is right and wrong for someone’s child on the basis of a photo….absurd isn’t it?

Although she was very easily labelled as a ‘bad mom’ Shveta Salve didn’t take it lying down. She hit back at trolls who criticised her for setting a bad example for her daughter by drinking and smoking.

In an Instagram post she wrote alongside the picture, “Yes, I drink and smoke”. She said that after receiving messages from ‘random people’ she felt the need to address the matter. Hence she wrote simply that she cannot be defined as a ‘bad mom’ because she drinks and smokes. She asked, “Do you see me wasting my life? Do you see me sitting unemployed and jobless? Do you see me neglecting my child?”

She brought up sex workers and asked if their profession makes them unfit to parent their children. She went on to say that she has successfully managed to juggle many careers and that her parents used to smoke and drink and did a ‘mighty fine job of raising’ her and her brother.

When will we stop judging others?

The way in which she slammed back at the trolls was commendable but this whole incident again raises the question of when we as a society will stop judging others, and especially women. Recently tennis star Sania Mirza was trolled for her pregnancy too. She was given a judgement of ‘staying back home for her kid’ because apparently, that’s what good moms do.

We need to understand that smoking, drinking or being focused on your career doesn’t mean that a woman won’t take care of her child or be a bad influence on her baby. Having a life, deciding how you want to live it, having choices, and living your comfort doesn’t make any woman a bad mom. It just makes her a person who has choices and a lifestyle.

Nishtha Pandey

I read, I write, I dream and search for the silver lining in my life.

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