Current Events > Woman's prank exposes how toxic Facebook Mom groups ruin lives

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https://nypost.com/2021/11/17/prank-exposes-how-toxic-facebook-mom-groups-can-ruin-lives/

A woman out to prove how toxic parents can be on social media made her point by sharing a doctored image of her one-year-old drinking Dr. Pepper from a bottle. Ohio mother-of-two Britney Hampton [Miller], 25, went viral after she shared an image of her infant son Zander sucking soda from his bottle on Facebook, which later ended up on Reddit and Twitter where it drew even more criticism from judgmental parents. Hampton has claimed she received thousands of hate messages from people who believed the image was genuine, according to UK news service MakeTheHeadlines. She revealed the truth on her TikTok page, claiming the controversial photo was disseminated as a hilarious prank went wrong. My 1 year old loves Dr Pepper, its the only thing he will drink, she initially wrote in a private Facebook group for parents. But recently he has been having trouble going to sleep Ive tried putting about 3-4 tsp of melatonin in his last bottle before bed but that doesnt seem to be working, I do not want to give him any more than that, Hampton continued. She also pleaded for no harsh words or judging!

The backlash was so swift and widespread that Hampton decided to go public with the image which she had intended only for the private Facebook group. The only reason I then made the public post was because there were moms that had screenshotted my post and shared it on Reddit and Facebook, she told MakeTheHeadline. After I started getting bad comments, I publicly posted for everyone to see that it was just a horrible joke that went wrong. Hampton added, I felt obligated to make a post for my familys safety that it was just a joke, just in case someone thought it was real and felt the need to call Child Protection Services or look me up on Facebook. Some of the very nasty messages she received included one calling her a dumb fuck and an abusive parent. Several called for her children to be taken from her home. Said one, There needs to be some sort of licensing process and regular check-ins to be allowed to have kids. And another: This should be classed as child abuse and grounds for removal. She came forward with the disheartening ordeal in a Nov. 6 TikTok video, with over 315,000 views on the platform. I felt obligated to make a post stating that my son does not drink soda or is abused in any way, that this was all an experiment, she clarified. My son has never even had juice before as his father and I are very strict about giving our children sugary drinks.






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I lied about doing something horrible and people got justifiably mad at me for it! Ha, idiots!

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Idiots need to mind their own business. The worst thing about social media is everyone thinks they should be sharing their opinions about everything. They shouldn't.

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Shablagoo posted...

I lied about doing something horrible and people got justifiably mad at me for it! Ha, idiots!

Yeah internet mobs are blameless

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Looks like she also photoshopped the injury on the child's head to be worse?

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All of the comments shown in her post are just people calmly, and correctly, saying its unhealthy for babies to drink soda

*Someone trolls mom groups about how shes abusing her baby and then gets a bunch of insulting messages*

How toxic!

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I feel I'd have more sympathy for the original poster if she posted in a place that wasn't a mom's group. Like I'm not saying mom's groups have carte blanche to be toxic, but as I understand, the point of them is to talk about motherhood and shared experiences.

As it stands, she knew she was trolling. As Tenlaar said, most of those examples aren't especially toxic. "Ha ha, I got you all mad and a few people took it too far out of thousands" is comparatively a classic GameFAQs troll.

Like it'd be one thing if the topic was something different and she was misunderstood to the point of toxic backlash, but she was absolutely cruising for trouble.

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This is baffling. It feels like the only way it makes sense if its like a double troll attempt.

People still use facebook?

Like all the asshats mad at her, willing to bet their parents gave them soda or something to drink they shouldn't at a young age. The fake outrage is astonishing. And like the 1 person who said: need to be screened before having kids.... that shit goes both ways bitch. Guaranteed 100% you'd fucking lose yours first.

Lebronwon posted...

There needs to be some sort of licensing process and regular check-ins to be allowed to have kids.

There are absolutely going to be pushes for this in the future.

And by regular check ins, this person means they want the government to have more children away from their parents.

Edit: but the other post is right, at least in that screenshot, they are all reasonable comments, even one saying "No judgement".

She was looking to provoke people and she provoked people

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We used to just call them troll and the only thing you can do to troll is not feed them. They fed her and now she's out there boasting about how great of a troll she is.

It seems to me everyone is pretty much guilty here.

This woman made a post that would make a reasonable parent upset (both the feeding of soda to a baby and the bruise on the forehead), then freaked out when it got the toxic response she expected.

But I'm also aware how horrible those mom's groups can be. Even for something mild like a child's bedtime can create a massive uproar if you don't fall into the "conformed standards".

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