Kylie Jenner Might Be A New Mother, But She’s Still Allowed To Have Fun

You know what’s absolutely fabulous, when new mums are shamed for choosing to do anything other than sit at home and obsess about their baby. Just that great dose of sexism to start off the week, it’s just so positive and uplifting. If you’re wondering what’s got me so riled up that I’m pulling out all the sarcastic stops, it’s the latest hate train on the road to Everyone Wants Kylie Jenner To Fail station.

Basically, she attended Coachella. That’s the news. She attended Coachella, presumably leaving her two-ish-month old baby with the abundance of hired help she will have, or one of her 1000 siblings who also have children. So, let’s be clear, the baby is fine. Stormi is happy as Larry, probably staring up at a diamond encrusted mobile that repeats ‘realise stuff’ and plays Travis Scott songs on repeat to remind her of her parents.

However, the people of Twitter are not happy with this. Specifically, they’re not happy solely with Kylie for this, apparently Travis can do what he wants. The 20-year-old received a tonne of online hate for going to a music festival and leaving her baby, with tweets calling her ‘trash’, an ‘example of learning how to use protection’ and essentially all around accusing her of being a terrible mother.

Let’s get one thing straight, there is more than one way to be a mother. We don’t all need to resign ourselves to staying by our babies side every second of the day, whether it was born one day ago or two months, it is perfectly fine to carry on living your life post-partum- obviously as long as your baby is safe. In fact, having a life outside your child seems like an integral thing to maintain for your own personal sanity. It’s unfair to expect a mother’s own life to go out the window, while the father can continue on with his, purely because she has a child- especially if she can afford childcare help.

The unfair expectation that Kylie shouldn’t be enjoying herself because she has a child only speaks to the wider issue we have in society whereby women are unfairly overburdened with childcare responsibilities, while fathers can get off Scott-free (Travis related pun intended) as if the child isn’t LITERALLY half their responsibility.

Why is it so bad that Kylie left her child with her nannies or family? Do we expect her to stop doing any of the things she enjoys just because she has a child? And why is everyone assuming she doesn’t spend any time with her child when they only get to see a snippet of her life? It’s honestly the most eye-rolling response, the need to constantly police what women do when it comes to children is entirely sexist and honestly, a tired, boring narrative.

Not only does it make women feel as if they need to choose between having a baby or succeeding in their career and living a normal life, it shames other mothers who may be struggling to leave their baby alone and their own sanity is suffering for it. What does this online trolling say to the mother who has just summoned up the courage to ignore the guilt and go do something for herself for the first time in months? Guilting women into the ‘correct way’ to parent is not only sexist, it’s hugely damaging for post-partum mental health.

So instead of shaming Kylie, let’s celebrate the fact she’s not falling foul the endless pressure new mothers face and continues to live her best life. Hell, if we could afford it, we would too.

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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.