My Right To Reply

“O my God…” my opening line to Paul when I called him at work to tell him the Toddler Fashionista article had been featured on the Mail Online… Whilst I thought I had gone into this feature with my eyes open, and prepared for the worst – I could never imagine the scope of this story and how much debate this article would evoke. Mortified and embarrassed only touch the surface of how I felt when reading the awful comments left on this story. But I felt it better to address this life lesson and not hide away and wait for it to pass, (mainly because with the attention it has received, this ain’t passing anytime soon!), so I wanted to write a post to assure my followers and acquaintances that I’m not really the monster portrayed by the press! Hopefully some of you will already have read my Toddler Fashionistas post from Feb that was written before this feature and already have the real side of this story.

There is no point trying to hide this article, just 5 hours after it went live it was shared over 660 times with almost 900 comments. So here it is…

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2582552/I-wouldnt-buy-girls-cheap-shoes-M-S-Are-Britains-pampered-children-Toddlers-lavished-45-000-designer-clothes-expensive-toys.html

Landing page of the Mail Online. Digitally, it doesn’t get much bigger than that. When the features writer told me it was going here, my heart sank a little but I still thought – ok how bad can it be? The headline alone nearly bought me to my knees!!!

‘I wouldn’t ever buy my girls cheap shoes from M&S’: Are these Britain’s most pampered children? Toddlers lavished with £45,000 of designer clothes and toys

I read this, and thought – just shoot me now. The article has 15 images and reveals our full names, there is no hiding from this one. What I thought was a bit of fun and something to tell the girls about in years to come, has become a day I wish had never happened. Everything I said has been taken out of context, the obscene figures of money, the attitudes of my daughters and the general tongue in cheek banter I had with the writer not knowing that every word was being written and spun as I said it. But even after I read this article, I kidded myself that I could keep it hidden and that no one I knew would ever come across it. Then I scrolled down to the comments. Dear lord its enough to send someone over the edge, what a cruel bunch the Mail Online subscribers are! It’s beyond me that anyone would A. believe half of what they read and B. give enough of a dam to share such a ridiculous story and comment on it.

So now it’s my turn to categorise the facts :

• Yes the girls have the odd label, who doesn’t like a bit of designer gear? But I certainly would never pay full price for it!
• If Scarlett ever turns her nose up at an item of clothing, it’s because of the look of it – not because of where it’s come from! She’s 2 for crying out loud!?
• We like a holiday, thats no secret, but £25k – I bloody wish!
• Most of Scarlett’s nursery is Ikea, its no secret, it is there in the photographs! I’m not ashamed of that or try to pretend it’s something that it’s not, you can see that for yourself here on my post about her room!
• It’s true that we don’t buy shoes from fashion shops such as M&S and Next, but what I added to this statement was that its because we are concerned about Scarlett’s ankles turning in so prefer to get shoes fitted professionally each time we buy new shoes!

Of course, none of this would make very interesting or controversial reading so its no wonder it wasn’t included. This whole experience has given me a totally different and very real insight in to the world of journalism, and one that I will never get stung by again. All I can hope is that just a few of the people that have read this article also see this and in future, don’t believe everything they read.