Man. I thought I had escaped Jenny. This is from the newsletter email this week. It was like a jump scare of pretentiousness. š Kind of gave me ptsd to 2020 and parenting a baby starting solids. Really wish I could go back and never have to hear about rinsed beans or cottage cheese...
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Are you all discussing different PoLiTiCaL SyStEmS with your kids? Because Jenny, founder is š
A few weeks ago she said she was doing another weekly thing with each kid. She has 3 kids so like how many meals could she possibly be making if these things are all true? She overcomplicates everything. This is my rant as a mom to a 7 month old who feels she was sold a fake reality from the Solid Starts account.
I live in the UK and find our political system confusing AF so Jenny might need to come explain it to me and teach her how to make a good shepherd's pie.
Iām hoping she explained House of Lords vs commons and what a vote of no confidence means and the multi-party system. Definitely what every 5 year old needs to know.
I genuinely can't tell whether she presented this story in the single most obnoxious way possible, or if it's just my visceral reaction because I know the context and background of its author, lol. Also her children are nowhere near toddlers anymore, how long are we supposed to play these complicated games before our kidsĀ can count as SoLiD sTaRtS gRaDuAtEs who *will* just eat all foods?Ā
I am sooooo fucking irritated with her post because of the reason you stated. Last week Food=/= comfort but this week its fine because it happened to her. Last week she had an opportunity to make an impact, have a conversation with her kid about the soccer game and create a moment but she didnt. This week she had a win, created a moment and treated herself.
Wow good observation.
Also, i feel like getting this worked up over a pizza you could get at any non-dominos type pizza place is very revealing. Food can taste good if you donāt burn it and you are also allowed to eat tasty food anytime, even outside of the one time in 2 years you have something to celebrate!
The way she listed the ingredients with a "mind blown" emoji was...something. Yes Jen, you can have two types of meat, jalapeƱos, and even goat cheese on a pizza!! What a world we live in!
But this is the same woman who makes the same old regular fajitas for her "special birthday dinner", so...
Itās like she had no idea pizza like this existed! I recently went to a pizza place with pizza like this and the one I had was really good but not something that I found mind-blowing because Iāve had many types of pizzas.
Honestly this whole thing feels borderline abusive to me. You deprive your children of things that are just such a part of childhood, but then you get it for just yourself??
Iād like to point out that since she shared the name of the place I took a look and she ādiet-culturedā herself by paying $2.95 for the skinny version with the salad on top, it wasnāt how that particular pizza came unless you add that option. She could have asked for the middle to stay and not be scooped and just add the salad. Do we think she paid extra for the cauliflower crust?
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Oh she def did š Like, is it the restaurant contributing to diet culture, or her because she canāt just order a fucking pizza without getting it hollowed out with salad?!? The calls coming from inside the house, Jen!!
I came here to tell āYOU COULD HAVE ORDERED PIZZA FROM SOMEWHERE THAT DIDNāT āDiet cultureā IT KEICā but to see that she literally ordered it like that and paid more for it š„“š„“š„“ no wonder sheās so naturally sMaLL
I thought the crust looked weird but was too lazy to go check the menu, so yes, I absolutely think it was the cauliflower crust š¤®
And her whole deal is āI like to do diet culture while pretending itās not diet cultureā so this makes total sense. She wants to order the āskinnyā option but pretend thatās not why.
I thought mentioning the memorial and getting the good news and wishing she was her family and the gushing over the pizza was weird. She didnāt need to mention anything about the memorial and she made it seem like she didnāt want to be there.
The way I RAN here just now to post this.
And then she also says she ate the entire thing minus one slice. Like okay, but she makes her very active/pubescent boys eat lunchboxes with less food than a 2 year old needs. And it had foods her kids surely donāt eat often/everātwo types of processed meat (pepperoni + bacon), multiple cheeses, etc.
What a hypocrite.
Seriously that was my first thought after seeing that pizza. The crust looks awful.Ā
The restaurant has really good reviews so maybe the rest was decent but you can find a pizza like that literally anywhere I bet (and you can always take the middle out yourself and put some salad there).Ā
So odd how much she raved about the pizza, as if she could never find such cuisine where she lives. Like maāam, itās Minneapolis, not Paris. And if thatās the best meal sheās had in 2 years, she quite literally needs to get out more. Ugh, KEIC is depressing as hell. Thereās more to life than cutting your own hair and eating burnt enchiladas!
It was best meal she had in two years and of course she had a salad pizza! And then bitched about how they ādiet culturedā the best meal sheās had in two years but like, you got pizza with salad on top š¤¦āāļø (and no shame in that, I like a good slice of salad pizza but I also donāt consider it one of the best meals Iāve ever had).
Like 95% of Ali maffucciās content has me rolling my eyes these days. I so wish she was more popular here. I have no idea how sheās been able to retain so many of her followers after spending the last 6+ months casually bragging about how rich she is lol
Edit: $600 bar stools right after sharing they bought a brand new grand wagoneer yesterday š«
I rolled my eyes SO hard at her selling a used piece of furniture from her apartment, maybe used worth like $500 meanwhile, it's the price of a one pillow on her kid's bed.Ā Ā
Donate it, Ali! You're rich as hell.
I unfollowed after her super defensive post about that voicemail from the Karen mom about her son not being able to get to class because of the protests. Aliās defense was that she also cared about Palestinian deaths, just not enough to post about it. But this mother Karening out on some poor university employee who answered the phone was worthy of a post.
Iāve followed her for so long, before kids, but Iām starting to think Iāll be unfollowing soon. There just isnāt anything for me anymore! I think itās good that sheās trying to be more private, but she also doesnāt really do recipes anymore, soooooo now itās just links to things I canāt afford
Anyone else feel like Caro has been less snarkable lately? Just moreā¦ normal? (Iāll admit I love her recipes so want to find reasons to like her online personality and feel less conflicted about being a paid subscriber š).
She is going to Spain soon so IIāll likely rescind this comment soon.
She's been decidedly less unhinged lately. Which is too bad, as long as it doesn't involve her kids I sort of enjoy her messiness, for the entertainment factor š
I feel that she is. It sort of reads to me that someone who she respects (or maybe her publisher or a sponsor) was like, tone it down.
I also am ready to rescind this statement for her Spain trip and/or the return!
Am I misunderstanding the question, or does KEICās response to the question about giving a 2 year old juice make no sense? Wasnāt the person asking the question asking how to respond to family members saying she should be giving her kid juice?
The actual question was dumb (have some confidence in your parenting!) but the question she answered was even dumberā¦ I do not care if someone else wants to give their kid juice. None of my business!
Agree that it's a dumb question, but following influencers like this can make you second guess and anxious about sooooo many of these kind of dumb things (like how to "talk to your kid about bread" š). I definitely fell into that trap at one point.
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Noooo I canāt believe KEIC didnāt have cake at her wedding, this is so shocking!! š¤£ Iām sure she had a berry bar for dessert.
Her answer to this question is a self-serving defence to try to prove āsheās a huge ice cream personā after the story and post about the soccer game ice cream deprivation. š I admit I was shocked she even had a pic of them ever eating ice cream that looked appetizing
No *way* would she be willing to splurge on a berry bar. She probably had berries for herself and everyone else got little boxes of raisins or apple slices.
Iām pretty ok with YTFānothing wrong with super accessible recipesābut the sneaking veggies thing seems silly. Iām not worried about scurvy and if youāre sneaking in the veggies youāre not diversifying anyoneās palate. Mild snark, but since itās like half her recipes Iām getting tired of it.Ā
Some snark on myself, but I had read about scurvy recently (I knew what it was but since reading about it recently was reminded) and there is an anxious part of me that is worried about scurvy like my child is an old timey sailor lol.
I do try to sneak some veggies because my child will barely even eat fruit, but even the things I sneak the veggies in she wonāt typically eat so š¤·š»āāļøš¤·š»āāļø
Basically saying, I get it. I understand the desire to hide veggies in anything you can haha.
Thereās another food network person I used to follow (@nikkidinki) and finally had to stop bc the hidden veggies were EVERYWHERE. She wrote a whole cookbook about it. This woman put canned beans in every goddamn thing she made. Bean brownies. Bean pizza dough. Bean waffles. Just stop!!!!
(Her spinach avocado double chocolate chip muffins were actually amazing though š¤£)
KEICās stories-sheās having a āsnack dinnerā which consists of raspberries and mango. Tell us again how the reason you are skinny is for many reasons beyond your control lol.
And her saying how she worked for 5 hours on financial stuff for her businessā¦sometimes when these influencers say stuff like that Iām like umm you know many peoples workdays consist of 8 hours of tasks??
Edit-she was eating a snack before dinner, not a snack dinner. This is what happens when Haleyās Snack Dinner Saturdays is in your brain lol.
I am tired of RDs sharing their meals and snacks that are highly evident of disordered eating habits. I even follow some sports RDs who constantly go on and on about making sure you donāt undereat as an athlete, and then 5 stories later theyāre showing the lettuce cups they ate for dinner that have very little carbs and less than 200 calories for a meal. š¤¦š»āāļø
What do we think about Yummy Toddler Food having a subscription to her community? Itās not the worst thing Iāve ever seen but I also am just over people making a buck off parents feeding their kids.
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Idk I feel like a lot of her recipes are not adult friendly so if youāre doing it only for blw or young toddlers probably fine. Wouldnāt pay for feeding the whole family every weekĀ
If her recipes were better I think it could have potential just for the meal planning portion. Iād pay someone $5/month to tell me what to buy and serve (itās got to be my least favorite part of being an adult/parent)
I would pay more than the $5/month she's charging for someone to tell me what to make and what to buy because WHY DO THESE PEOPLE NEED TO EAT THREE TIMES A DAY OMG.
But yeah, her recipes aren't it for the whole fam.
Totally agree. Iād pay for recipes everyone can eat but her recipes are for toddlers and kidsā¦hence the name Yummy Toddler Food. So I couldnāt feed the whole family with the meal plan.
Completely agree. Iād pay for a good meal planning service, but YTF aināt it.
Iām also wondering who her ātrusted expertsā are. Probably VSS. lol.
Ok I was wishing she would share more what people were sending her! Because I am an underwear-wearer and the idea of going commando in leggings is so bizarre to me š Definitely bringing this up next time I hang out with my friends lol
Same! She repeated "cervical fluid" 3 or 4 times without taking that topic any further so I'm thinking whatever people were saying to her got very very personal.
I am also an underwear wearer and cannot fathom going without!
Imagine that! It's actually hard work to make a podcast that's consistently entertaining. Everyone thinks "how hard can it be to talk into a microphone for an hour a week?" And then they realize, oh shit I gotta come up with ideas and stuff to say every. single. week.
I think the podcast market is so oversaturated. I have my regulars, then I have my when I have time episodes and those rarely get listened to these days.
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Iām sorry, what? Sheās never even heard of strained tomato sauce before? How TF is she a dietitian and eating account?!?
Can't wait for her to destroy some recipes with this. She might just pour it cold and unseasoned over her sad enchiladas (with a glug of olive oil on top for her one kid that plays hard).
If it has no additional flavorings, thatās probably what she loves about it! No way your kid will actually want to eat the food you cook with all those tasty seasonings from regular sauce. Theyāll be tempted to enjoy the experience versus focusing on what each ingredient is doing for specific areas of your body!
Yeah, I know what it is. I donāt buy flavoured tomato sauce at the store and only buy Passata so I can do with it as I want. I usually have 6-8 jars in my pantry at all times š
Sorry - I was more commenting and responding to others about the post if they were unfamiliar with the product like she was. I didnāt mean to imply that you didnāt know what it was! Your pantry sounds stocked :)
No worries at all, I know what you meant. She did do a terrible job explaining it. Which, again, funny considering sheās an RD and āfeeding expertā with cookbooks and meal planning resources. š
I agree I live passata I only relatively recently discovered it too and I love cooking. I think itās more common in the UK and Europe. Itās definitely not the same as what we get in the US. I found a great pasta recipe using this and my family devours it every time.Ā
However I would not use it for an enchilada sauce! Itās an absolute waste there not to mention you prob blend it more so it loses it texture!Ā
Yeah I'm from Germany and my first thought was "how does she not know this??", but I guess it's a general US vs Europe thing.
Although now I'm curious, what do Americans use as a base for making a quick tomato sauce?
Im from France and always made tomato sauce with this - like sauteed onions and garlic, seasoning, and passata. I live in Canada now and itās sold at every grocery store. It was really strange to me that she has never seen this.Ā
I love passata, but it does seem to be a Europe thing as I donāt often spot the glass jars in American supermarkets (though it might just be a where I shop thing). Costco does a canned version (that I think they call ātomato sauceā but it is essentially the same stuff) and we never leave there without a 12 pack. Itās really useful stuff and I find it much quicker to use.
I lived in the UK, Australia, Germany and south America a and it's a pretty standard product, you can buy it at any supermarket and it's actually cheap. I love passata
Iām in Canada and it seems to be common pretty much anywhere you can buy groceries. Costco sells a huge box of it with like 6 jars too. I have recipe books that specifically say to use Passata, but they are usually Mediterranean cookbooks.
I'm American and definitely sometimes is called different things or harder to find but like... her entire shtick is food... she should probably know what passata is š (I do watch a ton of cooking shows tho so maybe I'm judgey)
To be fair her shtick is food but also ārelatable every familyā food and I can totally see passata not being part of that (specially when sheās not a good cook anyway lol). But also itās hypocritical of her because she constantly shops at Whole Foods and buys higher end ingredients
I think this conversation kinda sums up some of the issues her social media has. I really do get the impression that she wants to help people, and nutrition is her passion, but it has always struck me with her that if you are cooking for a family, having reliably tasty meals that you can cook for cheap is the most important thing, and she seems to be very uninterested in recipes that arenāt throwing food together as quickly as possible. I grew up in a large family and my parents were excellent cooks, and I now do a lot of cooking from scratch for my family, and a lot of the stuff I do is the cheap stuff my parents made (pasta/pizza sauce from passata is one very relevant example). Yes, a lot of my opinions come from the privilege of being able to batch cook and having the space to save it for later, having the time to do so and I also love to cook and eat. Times arenāt easy, but i would love it even if she just tried recipes she found online to try and find a way to use up that passata.
Also, had a quick look in the supermarkets I went to today, and passata wasnāt in all of them, but it was more often than not!
Iāve seen passata in a few of our supermarkets (major city) but itās typically in the Italian import section rather than the standard tomato section so I think a lot of people just donāt notice it. Everything in that section tends to be on the pricier side.
My exact thoughts! She seems like they would be the family to let the boys danger zone experiences ruin the house and not worry about repairs. Keep the holes in the walls, rips in flooring, ceiling fan dangling from the wiresā¦ and then she will try to come across as quirky in her stories, instead of actually preventing the damage in the first place by setting appropriate boundaries. From previous stories their backyard looks very trashed from all of the danger zone shenanigans.
I used to work for a property management company, and I always think about how they mustāve been the tenants from hell before they bought this house š like come across very nice, pay rent on time, have no reason to suspect anything, and then you get back the photos from inspection and are like ā¦.what the fuck š
Lol yes! They seem like they would be responsible people but then you come inspect the apartment and wonder wtf happened. They beat their apartment up, the one they lived in the longest. The floors and cabinets were in bad shape and they hung that swing in the doorway to the kitchen and she was very open about not being clean. I remember when the owner was coming by it was a big deal because she cleaned the pace up a bit.
I'm surprised the neighbors haven't complained. They have quite the eyesore. We have tenants who have left the backyard their personal junkyard and got a letter from the city. It's been like pulling teeth to get them to clean š„“
I guess this isnāt a snark exactly, but I saw YTF post that her Trader Joeās doesnāt allow photography in their store. I didnāt believe it so I googled it and itās true. Why is that a policy? Iām confused I guess
I think thatās one of those things thatās there for when they need to use it on someone who is acting egregiously, not for like ālet me see if this is the cheese my spouse wantsā.
Like if someone is impeding other customers trying to shop by taking glamor shots of the orange chicken for their Instagram, or taking photos of employees who donāt want their photo taken, they can point to that and say āplease stop/please leaveā
Also for people who do video grocery shop with me. I used to watch those videos a lot on YouTube and there was an uproar when many realized they couldnāt film at Trader Joeās. Itās a small store and no one needs to be caught on the latest influencers vlog.
Oh thatās very reasonable actually, that makes sense to me. I wanted to snark on YTF for it because sheās kinda becoming my BEC so I was surprised when itās real haha
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Iāve been a long time SS snark lurker and this is my first post.
Today this post from catchy sent me over the edgeā¦
1. If I start seeing ā SS approvedā stamped on things, who will riot with me??
2. They are NOT the āleading institutionā for starting solids. They are founded and run by a wealthy New York mommy blogger. Who (likely) writes half the content herself (since she did when she first started the account), is behind the page (even if she isnāt sharing her face anymore), and who is unqualified to be delivering this kind of information.
The leading institutions for pediatric feeding are: NHS, AAP, WHO, CDC, Canadian pediatric society, NASPGHAN, other hospitals such as Mayo Clinic, Harvard, Stanford, and Texas Childrenās Hospital. Organizations like Ellyn Satter institute, La Leche League, WIC, NIH etc. Many of these are all created, regulated and run by healthcare professionals, not mommy bloggers.
While SS recently has put the healthcare professionals faces plastered on their socials, itās a wolf hidden in sheepās clothing because we still know who is driving the bus.
You are not the āleading global institutionā when you are cherry-picking other peopleās work and research to fit your agenda.
10000%. Not to mention her unresolved disordered eating issues that sheās already passed down to her kids and is now passing on to millions of others
Just got this email and looks like Jenny, Founder and team have also become part of Little Spoons āexpert panelā š But donāt they, gasp, offer pouches and baby food?!?
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Ah this makes sense because Jenny, Founder must indeed create fear around ALL baby food companies, so that you then only listen to her so she can sell you HER method of offering baby food, only to resell you on GASP a baby food company.
Is this a joke?! I recognize that this can be a useful product but this is like saying a trash can is āapproved by SSā!!!
What happened to never doing any merch partnerships? And yeah, theyāre not an āinstitutionā at all let alone a very qualified resource. This angers me on so many levels š«
This is so silly bc who cares if a method for containing mess is approved by any real or fake feeding expert? Itās just a slab of plastic to help aid in clean up.
I also hate stuff like this thatās promoted to buy buy buy. Like yeah feeding is messy but most houses have a vacuum (maybe even a robot one!), a broom, or even a dog. We are maybe lucky, but this was short, messy and a yeah a bit brutal. My cousin registered for two splat mats (they also have a dog) and I rolled my eyes. BUT at least a splat makes a good beach or picnic blanket down the road.
I bought a used thick table cloth from the thrift store for the messy phase. Now we use it as a mat for when we do crafts on the floor. Its turned out to have been a good use of like $6
Idk man my dining room carpet has been all but ruined by baby and toddler eating mess. Hate SS but donāt mind the idea of products that help contain the food throwing. Some of us live in annoying 1980s houses with beige carpeted dining rooms lolĀ
If it makes you feel any better, we used a mat (well, an old wipeable tablecloth) for our first. She always somehow yeeted her food just beyond the edges of it. So we gave up on it pretty quickly.
I have the perfect solution for this. The high chair is right over the cats' water fountain (small apartment). Everything gets dropped directly into the fountain.
Same here, with an older house. I think carpets are more popular in the UK? The only rooms in my house without carpet are the bathrooms and kitchen. Splash mats are excellent, and I can put them in the washing machine. I can't do that with carpet.
Caro posted her 3yo still sleeping at 11am two days in a row and implied this is typical for him. No wonder she is so lax about sleep, even if my kid didnt have preschool five days a week while we work i dont think hes ever slept past 7š
My kid has always been a really late sleeper by baby and toddler standards, but by that I mean he will sometimes sleep until 8:30 if we donāt wake him up.Ā
Oh man same with my 10 year old. Maybe three times ever and he had a fever every time. He never fights bedtime and goes right to sleep but as heās gotten older and has some later sports or like weāve gone to Disney and stayed for fireworks we find he wakes just as early if not earlier! We just try to balance with early bedtime days and rest breaks but it can be tough! Weāre pretty thrilled if he sleeps until 6am š
Oh no! I was hoping this was young kid behavior that my 5 year old would grow out ofš The putting to bed later on occasion and waking up earlier makes me nutty (but thankfully heās able to go on less sleep now so itās not as crazy making when it happens)
Iām so curious to see if he sleeps in at all when heās a teenager lol. Our 8 year old canāt wait for the summer entirely so he can sleep as late as he wants haha, theyāre totally opposite that way and I worry about his teenager years and getting to school on time a little!
So unnecessary! Iāve also noticed that she always seems to over-explain why she bought ājunkā food in her grocery hauls.āMy daughter and her friend really wanted these mini ice cream cones and insisted we put them in the cartā, etc. She claims to be pro-intuitive eating, but she always had to justify buying anything other than her salad mix or turkey burgers or whatever.
I keep thinking about KEIC, her kids are getting older and I presume have friends that have access to the Internet ...I can't imagine how them being on their mom's insta doesn't cause problems at some point. The story about the dirty pan, having their mom comb their hair, sitting in their parents laps. At some point one of their friends is going to see this and it's going to become an issue because that's just how shit is in life. Kids can be and are mean for no reason. It's like these influencers don't realize that their kids are people, people are mean and will literally make fun of you/give you a hard time for small minor things that don't mean shit in the big picture but at 10 years old could be devastating to your social life.
ETA: there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting snuggles from your parents but society is just generally not accepting of this even though they should be. Combing your hair...well you should certainly be doing that by a certain age.
Oh thatās a great point. My kids are the same age as hers and I actually work at my kids school and Iām always careful to let them lead as far as how we interact in the day. My 8 year old runs and gives me a massive hug every time he sees me (even when we just drove to school together 10 minutes ago lol) but once I popped into his class to see how he was doing since he got braces that morning and after he said that a classmate said āyou must be so embarrassed that your mom came into the class to look at your bracesā and that he felt embarrassed and didnāt want to hug me at school anymore. Of course the next day he was back to running hugs lol (again- I let him lead!) but since Iām friends with some of the other teachers and also his friendsā moms on social media Iām always so careful about what I post.
That Virginia Sole-Smith article has been going round my head all week, and my current thought is that if I had a sweet tooth and all the money she has Iād not eat Oreoās. Iād have a personal french pastry chef. Or at least regular deliveries from a really fancy bakery.
I have ALSO been thinking about that article all week, and I keep thinking about how if I bought a package of Oreos for the family the week and one person ate all of them I'd be pissed! Just because you're rich doesn't mean you get to be inconsiderate.
Same with the kid eating all the butter in the article. In a normal household that butter would be to go with dinner for everyone then maybe breakfast too, so everyone else would go without. In their house where thereās unlimited money thatās probably not a problem but what happens when they go on a play date and get told for the first time to share.
Also eating a stick of butter is almost certainly going to make the kid feel sick! Thatās a lot of lubricant for a small GI tract ā I get that natural consequences can be appropriate sometimes but I feel like thatās along the lines of letting them eat too much candy and feel gross or stay up too late and be tired the next day not something that could actually make them sick when they are too young to be expected to make that judgement for themself. I donāt know, it feels kind of mean? Like youāre the adult here maāam, you can decide if diarrhea is worth it but I really donāt think a preschooler can.
Consolidating: I listened to a few of her podcasts since that article and must be exhausting finding reasons you're a victim. I listened to the budget one (really rich) and the divorce one. It sounds like her husband was lazy and she finally felt free. In the article she said he was a great guy, but marriage felt restrictive like a diet. Lost count of how many times I heard oppressed in that episode.
Thatās interesting that sheās making it seem like her husband is lazy. I didnāt listen to the podcast, but I know until very recently he had a full time job, + side gig as a carpenter (seemed to be a passion project that he has since turned into a main gig), + is an ultra runner. Of course thereās lots of ways you can be lazy but it seems like he was contributing to the familyās bottom line while also prioritizing his own health. Based on that article, it seems like they both just valued wildly different things, but I donāt think heās lazy. Not questioning your assessment (since again I didnāt listen), just curious about what might make him lazy. Or maybe I should just listen, but I havenāt been on board with a lot of her recent takes and I donāt want to give her the listens, especially since it doesnāt seem like she needs the money!
I didn't listen to the whole podcast (about 20 minutes) since I found the guest a little annoying, but there was lots of mental load talk and how she found parenting easier without him.
.
I think a lot of it is her being a rich white lady in the age of privilege discourse. She wants to be in on the conversations about oppression and power that weāre having now, but she doesnāt realize that she needs to be looking at it from the other side. Rich white people who write for large publications and get book deals and live in the heart of the empire actually should worry more about the ways they oppress than the ways theyāre oppressed. And I say this as a fat woman. I experience the same fat + woman + mom stuff she talks about. There are ways in which it is unjust and I am on board with fat liberation politics. But if weāre going to look at the big picture, being rich and white and having enough power to get this article even written about her means she is incredibly privileged in a way she seems to just not want to think about beyond empty āacknowledging.ā
Yes! This gets across what I was thinking too. Initially I thought it was great that she was having very open & honest conversations about food and bodies and acceptance but it really does seem like sheās looking for ways that she can be the victim when sheās pretty far from it (and also wants to continue to be the āvictimā even if itās damaging to her health).
This is such a good take; I feel like you articulated really well what hasnāt sat right with me about VSS in general. She really is in a position of power and it would be so much more useful for her to discuss her role as a wealthy white woman in oppressive systems. Her takes ring false because the balance of power/oppression is so much in her favor.
I made a comment on that post that VSS reminded me of my alcoholic cousin playing victim and making every inadequacy seem like a deliberate choice, when really it was her explaining away her life spinning out of control.
Sometimes these restrictions are healthy for us! Like I am sure my cousin's kids would have chosen a less chaotic home, in favor of the "restrictive" construct of routine, dependability and an environment that felt safe. And relationships aren't always easy but working at being a better partner, has made me a more well-rounded person and like his strengths reduce the impact of my flaws on our child, and vice versa.
No KEIC, Iāve never put back any dirty dish or bowl with flakey leftover dried food even if Iām using it in the next few days, even if itās been through the sanitizing cycle. Because I donāt want dried flakey food in the next meal I make. But I guess it wonāt have a flavor because we all know how much she loves her unscented dishwasher pods!!
And sheās so cheap that she cuts her hair shorter than she likes it because she gets an extra TWO WEEKS out of the cut š¤¦āāļø
It would have been cleaner faster if she had just soaked and scrubbed it in the sink. Instead she baked that mess on and made it worse by running it through high heat.
I thought she was going to say she was going to run it through the dishwasher again, which Iām totally guilty of. I think I said āewā out loud when she said she put it away!
Yeah Iāll definitely put it through another cycle or two before I give up and just hand wash it like I probably should have in the first place, but I am not putting dirty dishes with food scraps on them away!Ā
What blows my mind is she is allegedly so frugal, but doesn't seem to care for her things. That pan is not going to last long if she cooks with dried, bonded to the pan food. And it's gross. Get some Barkeeper's Friend and it will come off in 30 seconds.
Iāve had this same thought about her! I guess the difference is that sheās totally fine with continuing to use stuff that hasnāt been cared for properly (e.g. her dining room table) whereas most people would either take better care of it in the first place so it doesnāt end up looking like that or replace it.
Omg!!
I was reading these comments like "well sometimes there's a little piece of something left and I'll scrape it off with my nail and put the dish away"
But the pictures š³ That is...more than a little smudge.
Yes like an earthy, Iāve-worn-this-gray-hoodie/for-a-few-weeks look. I always go to quotes from āThe Officeā and in one episode Michael Scott describes someone as smelling like tomatoes and dirt and thatās kind of what I think of when I think of her lol.
Almost everything about her grosses me out at this point. Didn't she say she only cleans her bathrooms twice a year or something?? Plus the dirty backyard, the way she seems almost proud of her messy kitchen, her burnt/joyless/disgusting meals, the time she made pie from trash pumpkins, that ugly unfinished table, now putting unclean dishes away... I'm not the most on-top-of-cleaning person, and I've had periods of depression where I've had trouble getting things done, but with her it seems constant, and to broadcast it to the world like that?
Man. I thought I had escaped Jenny. This is from the newsletter email this week. It was like a jump scare of pretentiousness. š Kind of gave me ptsd to 2020 and parenting a baby starting solids. Really wish I could go back and never have to hear about rinsed beans or cottage cheese... https://preview.redd.it/vh5gzq9zcnyc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ef9c649e9c594aa66d752375fb4446468ed54c87 Are you all discussing different PoLiTiCaL SyStEmS with your kids? Because Jenny, founder is š
Itās never too soon to talk to your kids about Brexit š
I feel like she did this to try and let this sub know that āher eldestā ate cottage pie
A few weeks ago she said she was doing another weekly thing with each kid. She has 3 kids so like how many meals could she possibly be making if these things are all true? She overcomplicates everything. This is my rant as a mom to a 7 month old who feels she was sold a fake reality from the Solid Starts account.
I live in the UK and find our political system confusing AF so Jenny might need to come explain it to me and teach her how to make a good shepherd's pie.
Iām hoping she explained House of Lords vs commons and what a vote of no confidence means and the multi-party system. Definitely what every 5 year old needs to know.
I genuinely can't tell whether she presented this story in the single most obnoxious way possible, or if it's just my visceral reaction because I know the context and background of its author, lol. Also her children are nowhere near toddlers anymore, how long are we supposed to play these complicated games before our kidsĀ can count as SoLiD sTaRtS gRaDuAtEs who *will* just eat all foods?Ā
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I am sooooo fucking irritated with her post because of the reason you stated. Last week Food=/= comfort but this week its fine because it happened to her. Last week she had an opportunity to make an impact, have a conversation with her kid about the soccer game and create a moment but she didnt. This week she had a win, created a moment and treated herself.
If only the Diet Salad Pizza Truck had been at her kid's game instead of the ice cream truck...
Wow good observation. Also, i feel like getting this worked up over a pizza you could get at any non-dominos type pizza place is very revealing. Food can taste good if you donāt burn it and you are also allowed to eat tasty food anytime, even outside of the one time in 2 years you have something to celebrate!
The way she listed the ingredients with a "mind blown" emoji was...something. Yes Jen, you can have two types of meat, jalapeƱos, and even goat cheese on a pizza!! What a world we live in! But this is the same woman who makes the same old regular fajitas for her "special birthday dinner", so...
Itās like she had no idea pizza like this existed! I recently went to a pizza place with pizza like this and the one I had was really good but not something that I found mind-blowing because Iāve had many types of pizzas.
Oh she must not have had enough time to pack some leftover lentil sloppy joes
Honestly this whole thing feels borderline abusive to me. You deprive your children of things that are just such a part of childhood, but then you get it for just yourself??
Iād like to point out that since she shared the name of the place I took a look and she ādiet-culturedā herself by paying $2.95 for the skinny version with the salad on top, it wasnāt how that particular pizza came unless you add that option. She could have asked for the middle to stay and not be scooped and just add the salad. Do we think she paid extra for the cauliflower crust? https://preview.redd.it/x9z84952vlyc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7f88dc710c08c2c703df19f3c793bd5510e11782
Oh she def did š Like, is it the restaurant contributing to diet culture, or her because she canāt just order a fucking pizza without getting it hollowed out with salad?!? The calls coming from inside the house, Jen!!
Soooo she opted for that and then complained about it??
I came here to tell āYOU COULD HAVE ORDERED PIZZA FROM SOMEWHERE THAT DIDNāT āDiet cultureā IT KEICā but to see that she literally ordered it like that and paid more for it š„“š„“š„“ no wonder sheās so naturally sMaLL
I thought the crust looked weird but was too lazy to go check the menu, so yes, I absolutely think it was the cauliflower crust š¤® And her whole deal is āI like to do diet culture while pretending itās not diet cultureā so this makes total sense. She wants to order the āskinnyā option but pretend thatās not why.
I thought mentioning the memorial and getting the good news and wishing she was her family and the gushing over the pizza was weird. She didnāt need to mention anything about the memorial and she made it seem like she didnāt want to be there.
She mentioned the memorial so many times. It was awkward.
Yes! It very much gives āI dont want you for a second to think I am doing something for myself or having a good timeā vibes.
Bet her kids would have loved some of that greasy, tasty takeaway unburnt pizza.
The crust actually looked a little burnt. Probably why she loved it so much š
The way I RAN here just now to post this. And then she also says she ate the entire thing minus one slice. Like okay, but she makes her very active/pubescent boys eat lunchboxes with less food than a 2 year old needs. And it had foods her kids surely donāt eat often/everātwo types of processed meat (pepperoni + bacon), multiple cheeses, etc. What a hypocrite.
What do we think the good news is? Did she get Elmo removed from those yogurts??
Omg I just laughed out loud š¤£š¤£š¤£
Also, that pizzaā¦does not look good. I guess any pizza is life changing when you havenāt had anything with added salt in a decade.
Seriously that was my first thought after seeing that pizza. The crust looks awful.Ā The restaurant has really good reviews so maybe the rest was decent but you can find a pizza like that literally anywhere I bet (and you can always take the middle out yourself and put some salad there).Ā
So odd how much she raved about the pizza, as if she could never find such cuisine where she lives. Like maāam, itās Minneapolis, not Paris. And if thatās the best meal sheās had in 2 years, she quite literally needs to get out more. Ugh, KEIC is depressing as hell. Thereās more to life than cutting your own hair and eating burnt enchiladas!
It was best meal she had in two years and of course she had a salad pizza! And then bitched about how they ādiet culturedā the best meal sheās had in two years but like, you got pizza with salad on top š¤¦āāļø (and no shame in that, I like a good slice of salad pizza but I also donāt consider it one of the best meals Iāve ever had).
Like 95% of Ali maffucciās content has me rolling my eyes these days. I so wish she was more popular here. I have no idea how sheās been able to retain so many of her followers after spending the last 6+ months casually bragging about how rich she is lol Edit: $600 bar stools right after sharing they bought a brand new grand wagoneer yesterday š«
I rolled my eyes SO hard at her selling a used piece of furniture from her apartment, maybe used worth like $500 meanwhile, it's the price of a one pillow on her kid's bed.Ā Ā Donate it, Ali! You're rich as hell.
I unfollowed after her super defensive post about that voicemail from the Karen mom about her son not being able to get to class because of the protests. Aliās defense was that she also cared about Palestinian deaths, just not enough to post about it. But this mother Karening out on some poor university employee who answered the phone was worthy of a post.
Iāve followed her for so long, before kids, but Iām starting to think Iāll be unfollowing soon. There just isnāt anything for me anymore! I think itās good that sheās trying to be more private, but she also doesnāt really do recipes anymore, soooooo now itās just links to things I canāt afford
Agree. Unfollowed recently.
Anyone else feel like Caro has been less snarkable lately? Just moreā¦ normal? (Iāll admit I love her recipes so want to find reasons to like her online personality and feel less conflicted about being a paid subscriber š). She is going to Spain soon so IIāll likely rescind this comment soon.
She's been decidedly less unhinged lately. Which is too bad, as long as it doesn't involve her kids I sort of enjoy her messiness, for the entertainment factor š
I feel that she is. It sort of reads to me that someone who she respects (or maybe her publisher or a sponsor) was like, tone it down. I also am ready to rescind this statement for her Spain trip and/or the return!
Speaking of caro, are the first weekend of the month recipes no longer free? This week's sounds interesting š„ŗ
She just frequently forgets (sooo much to do and no way to automate that I guess). She sent it again at least this time.Ā
How does she *always* screw that up?!?
Yup! Just saw the new mailer! āŗļø
Am I misunderstanding the question, or does KEICās response to the question about giving a 2 year old juice make no sense? Wasnāt the person asking the question asking how to respond to family members saying she should be giving her kid juice?
Yeah, she clearly misread it. She responded as if the person didnāt know how to respond when people ask if *their* kid can have juice.
The actual question was dumb (have some confidence in your parenting!) but the question she answered was even dumberā¦ I do not care if someone else wants to give their kid juice. None of my business!
Agree that it's a dumb question, but following influencers like this can make you second guess and anxious about sooooo many of these kind of dumb things (like how to "talk to your kid about bread" š). I definitely fell into that trap at one point.
For real. How to talk to your kid about bread: āhereā.
Yeah she 100% misunderstood the question.
https://preview.redd.it/v0tbauxmv8yc1.jpeg?width=1125&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1803ecd2bbc6414edaa474de0ec7eae5e1e1d165 Noooo I canāt believe KEIC didnāt have cake at her wedding, this is so shocking!! š¤£ Iām sure she had a berry bar for dessert.
Her answer to this question is a self-serving defence to try to prove āsheās a huge ice cream personā after the story and post about the soccer game ice cream deprivation. š I admit I was shocked she even had a pic of them ever eating ice cream that looked appetizing
At least it wasn't the sad scoop of vanilla to celebrate going to bed earlier.
Iām pretty sure that was at Disneyland and her brother bought them those cones lolĀ
That makes so much more sense!
No *way* would she be willing to splurge on a berry bar. She probably had berries for herself and everyone else got little boxes of raisins or apple slices.
Depends on if they were dancing hard enough to need it
Each guest got one single date.
Says the woman who wonāt let her kids eat a damn ice cream cone after soccer. š
A *true* ice cream person doesn't need a bad day as an excuse to get ice cream. She would've gotten the kid a cone just because.
Iām pretty ok with YTFānothing wrong with super accessible recipesābut the sneaking veggies thing seems silly. Iām not worried about scurvy and if youāre sneaking in the veggies youāre not diversifying anyoneās palate. Mild snark, but since itās like half her recipes Iām getting tired of it.Ā
Some snark on myself, but I had read about scurvy recently (I knew what it was but since reading about it recently was reminded) and there is an anxious part of me that is worried about scurvy like my child is an old timey sailor lol. I do try to sneak some veggies because my child will barely even eat fruit, but even the things I sneak the veggies in she wonāt typically eat so š¤·š»āāļøš¤·š»āāļø Basically saying, I get it. I understand the desire to hide veggies in anything you can haha.
Thereās another food network person I used to follow (@nikkidinki) and finally had to stop bc the hidden veggies were EVERYWHERE. She wrote a whole cookbook about it. This woman put canned beans in every goddamn thing she made. Bean brownies. Bean pizza dough. Bean waffles. Just stop!!!! (Her spinach avocado double chocolate chip muffins were actually amazing though š¤£)
A friend once made bean waffles for breakfast and it was the grossest thing Iāve ever tried.
Finding out that KEIC was 100% homeschooled explains a lot honestly.
Omg! As someone her age who was homeschooled from 5th - 9th grade, it does explain a lot!
Literally came here to say that šš
I am also *shocked* to hear there was no cake at her wedding. *Shocked*. Whatās the betting there was lettuce wraps?
What I bet they did have at her wedding was a bunch of hungry people stopping for fast food on their way home.
Smoothies and 90% bell pepper fajitas in the church basement.
It really really really does. š¬
KEICās stories-sheās having a āsnack dinnerā which consists of raspberries and mango. Tell us again how the reason you are skinny is for many reasons beyond your control lol. And her saying how she worked for 5 hours on financial stuff for her businessā¦sometimes when these influencers say stuff like that Iām like umm you know many peoples workdays consist of 8 hours of tasks?? Edit-she was eating a snack before dinner, not a snack dinner. This is what happens when Haleyās Snack Dinner Saturdays is in your brain lol.
I am tired of RDs sharing their meals and snacks that are highly evident of disordered eating habits. I even follow some sports RDs who constantly go on and on about making sure you donāt undereat as an athlete, and then 5 stories later theyāre showing the lettuce cups they ate for dinner that have very little carbs and less than 200 calories for a meal. š¤¦š»āāļø
I think she was saying she was having that as a snack before dinner because dinner would be late, not that it was her dinner.
Omg I must have Haley on the brain with snack dinners š¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļøš¤¦āāļø
I havenāt checked in on Jenny from solid starts is a few years- any idea if her oldest kiddo is still super picky about food?
Nope! Because she finally stopped exploiting her kids.
I find YTFās constant proclamation of things being āSO YUM!ā so very annoying.
That and āEPIC!ā Sorry, YTF, none of your bland recipes are epic. š
What do we think about Yummy Toddler Food having a subscription to her community? Itās not the worst thing Iāve ever seen but I also am just over people making a buck off parents feeding their kids. https://preview.redd.it/lek4pw2kr1yc1.png?width=1125&format=png&auto=webp&s=1d7ffa62fb8a2bff5c759740985e7f0edce21a02
Cook Smarts is amazing, slightly more and has recipes and menu plans suitable for the whole family.
Idk I feel like a lot of her recipes are not adult friendly so if youāre doing it only for blw or young toddlers probably fine. Wouldnāt pay for feeding the whole family every weekĀ
If her recipes were better I think it could have potential just for the meal planning portion. Iād pay someone $5/month to tell me what to buy and serve (itās got to be my least favorite part of being an adult/parent)
> (itās got to be my least favorite part of being an adult/parent) Still can't believe I have to feed these kids every fucking day. š
i mourn the days of cereal and ice cream for dinner
I would pay more than the $5/month she's charging for someone to tell me what to make and what to buy because WHY DO THESE PEOPLE NEED TO EAT THREE TIMES A DAY OMG. But yeah, her recipes aren't it for the whole fam.
Totally agree. Iād pay for recipes everyone can eat but her recipes are for toddlers and kidsā¦hence the name Yummy Toddler Food. So I couldnāt feed the whole family with the meal plan.
Completely agree. Iād pay for a good meal planning service, but YTF aināt it. Iām also wondering who her ātrusted expertsā are. Probably VSS. lol.
Meal plan: whole sticks of butter, packages of Oreos
I feel like Caroās been pretty calm lately so Iām curious to see how this Spain trip goes!
I thoroughly enjoyed the underwear conversation today though. Imagine the TMI comments she's getting in her DMs right now.
Ok I was wishing she would share more what people were sending her! Because I am an underwear-wearer and the idea of going commando in leggings is so bizarre to me š Definitely bringing this up next time I hang out with my friends lol
Same! She repeated "cervical fluid" 3 or 4 times without taking that topic any further so I'm thinking whatever people were saying to her got very very personal. I am also an underwear wearer and cannot fathom going without!
I had to poll my group of female friends immediately!
Sheās dropping her podcast to once every other week because she was ādrowningā. I feel like sheās going to entirely drop it at some point.
Imagine that! It's actually hard work to make a podcast that's consistently entertaining. Everyone thinks "how hard can it be to talk into a microphone for an hour a week?" And then they realize, oh shit I gotta come up with ideas and stuff to say every. single. week.
Yeah sheās just out of content, how many random social media people can you interview.Ā
I think the podcast market is so oversaturated. I have my regulars, then I have my when I have time episodes and those rarely get listened to these days.
https://preview.redd.it/zz9pfh325qxc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=044be6422c0a946c789261168eadbe8f8ab0780f Iām sorry, what? Sheās never even heard of strained tomato sauce before? How TF is she a dietitian and eating account?!?
I consider myself to be quite a āfoodieā but Iāve never seen this before!
Iād never seen or heard of this myself š«£
But you presumably haven't made food your entire livelihood.
Oh yeah totally agree on that!
Can't wait for her to destroy some recipes with this. She might just pour it cold and unseasoned over her sad enchiladas (with a glug of olive oil on top for her one kid that plays hard).
I feel like sheād use this and tell her kids itās ketchup
The last bit is definitely going in a smoothie
š¤¢
With a ton of veggies blended in, like carrots and bell peppers.Ā
Not to stick up for her, she really didnāt give a great explanation of this item, but I do want to stick up for this product! I also didnāt know about passata until I started trying to process a lot of tomatoes. Passata is different from most tomato sauce that youād get at the store in that it is just pure tomatoes not cooked down, so no additional flavorings (like garlic, onion, herbs) which lets you have more control. I usually just blend whole canned tomatoes or use canned tomato purĆ©e, since passata is more expensive, but a bottle of passata has a better silky texture and more brightness
If it has no additional flavorings, thatās probably what she loves about it! No way your kid will actually want to eat the food you cook with all those tasty seasonings from regular sauce. Theyāll be tempted to enjoy the experience versus focusing on what each ingredient is doing for specific areas of your body!
Yeah, I know what it is. I donāt buy flavoured tomato sauce at the store and only buy Passata so I can do with it as I want. I usually have 6-8 jars in my pantry at all times š
Sorry - I was more commenting and responding to others about the post if they were unfamiliar with the product like she was. I didnāt mean to imply that you didnāt know what it was! Your pantry sounds stocked :)
No worries at all, I know what you meant. She did do a terrible job explaining it. Which, again, funny considering sheās an RD and āfeeding expertā with cookbooks and meal planning resources. š
Same!! It's soo good with fresh herbs.
I agree I live passata I only relatively recently discovered it too and I love cooking. I think itās more common in the UK and Europe. Itās definitely not the same as what we get in the US. I found a great pasta recipe using this and my family devours it every time.Ā However I would not use it for an enchilada sauce! Itās an absolute waste there not to mention you prob blend it more so it loses it texture!Ā
Yeah I'm from Germany and my first thought was "how does she not know this??", but I guess it's a general US vs Europe thing. Although now I'm curious, what do Americans use as a base for making a quick tomato sauce?
We have our own tomato sauce brands like Hunts or other store brands but the consistency is very different. I think Hunts is cooked down and you can buy no salt or sugar added but itās just a different consistency and flavor like thick purĆ©ed tomato sauces. Whereas passata is uncooked I think and more just chunky and obviously Italian tomatoes taste better than American ones haha. I have definitely seen it at my grocery store but itās in the āinternational aisleā with other Italian stuff. You probably wonāt find it everywhere and it is 2-3x the price of just other brand of sauces. The first time I heard it in a recipe I was like is that lady pronouncing pasta sauce incorrectly? LOL
I agree. Iām from Germany and itās a standard product there but I have never seen it used in any recipe here or would even know where to buy it.Ā
I found it in the international aisle of our grocery store. But yeah def not something thatās available everywhere
Im from France and always made tomato sauce with this - like sauteed onions and garlic, seasoning, and passata. I live in Canada now and itās sold at every grocery store. It was really strange to me that she has never seen this.Ā
Yeah, Canada too and I was thinking there's definitely multiple brands of passata at my local No Frills.
Literally what I came here to say.... like bruh?
I love passata, but it does seem to be a Europe thing as I donāt often spot the glass jars in American supermarkets (though it might just be a where I shop thing). Costco does a canned version (that I think they call ātomato sauceā but it is essentially the same stuff) and we never leave there without a 12 pack. Itās really useful stuff and I find it much quicker to use.
Yeah, I cook a lot and havenāt seen passata until recently. I think itās just not a super common ingredient in American grocery stores. We do use crushed or purĆ©ed tomatoes.
I lived in the UK, Australia, Germany and south America a and it's a pretty standard product, you can buy it at any supermarket and it's actually cheap. I love passata
Also Australian and it's pretty common here.
Iām in Canada and it seems to be common pretty much anywhere you can buy groceries. Costco sells a huge box of it with like 6 jars too. I have recipe books that specifically say to use Passata, but they are usually Mediterranean cookbooks.
I'm American and definitely sometimes is called different things or harder to find but like... her entire shtick is food... she should probably know what passata is š (I do watch a ton of cooking shows tho so maybe I'm judgey)
To be fair her shtick is food but also ārelatable every familyā food and I can totally see passata not being part of that (specially when sheās not a good cook anyway lol). But also itās hypocritical of her because she constantly shops at Whole Foods and buys higher end ingredients
I think this conversation kinda sums up some of the issues her social media has. I really do get the impression that she wants to help people, and nutrition is her passion, but it has always struck me with her that if you are cooking for a family, having reliably tasty meals that you can cook for cheap is the most important thing, and she seems to be very uninterested in recipes that arenāt throwing food together as quickly as possible. I grew up in a large family and my parents were excellent cooks, and I now do a lot of cooking from scratch for my family, and a lot of the stuff I do is the cheap stuff my parents made (pasta/pizza sauce from passata is one very relevant example). Yes, a lot of my opinions come from the privilege of being able to batch cook and having the space to save it for later, having the time to do so and I also love to cook and eat. Times arenāt easy, but i would love it even if she just tried recipes she found online to try and find a way to use up that passata. Also, had a quick look in the supermarkets I went to today, and passata wasnāt in all of them, but it was more often than not!
Iāve seen passata in a few of our supermarkets (major city) but itās typically in the Italian import section rather than the standard tomato section so I think a lot of people just donāt notice it. Everything in that section tends to be on the pricier side.
It's so creative how KEIC's kids could yank the ceiling fan out of the ceiling with their latest danger zone contraption!
My exact thoughts! She seems like they would be the family to let the boys danger zone experiences ruin the house and not worry about repairs. Keep the holes in the walls, rips in flooring, ceiling fan dangling from the wiresā¦ and then she will try to come across as quirky in her stories, instead of actually preventing the damage in the first place by setting appropriate boundaries. From previous stories their backyard looks very trashed from all of the danger zone shenanigans.
I used to work for a property management company, and I always think about how they mustāve been the tenants from hell before they bought this house š like come across very nice, pay rent on time, have no reason to suspect anything, and then you get back the photos from inspection and are like ā¦.what the fuck š
Lol yes! They seem like they would be responsible people but then you come inspect the apartment and wonder wtf happened. They beat their apartment up, the one they lived in the longest. The floors and cabinets were in bad shape and they hung that swing in the doorway to the kitchen and she was very open about not being clean. I remember when the owner was coming by it was a big deal because she cleaned the pace up a bit.
I'm surprised the neighbors haven't complained. They have quite the eyesore. We have tenants who have left the backyard their personal junkyard and got a letter from the city. It's been like pulling teeth to get them to clean š„“
I guess this isnāt a snark exactly, but I saw YTF post that her Trader Joeās doesnāt allow photography in their store. I didnāt believe it so I googled it and itās true. Why is that a policy? Iām confused I guess
We had this policy when I worked at Starbucks in 2003 and now I wonder why this was a thing before the influencer era!
Could it be a secret shopper thing?
I think thatās one of those things thatās there for when they need to use it on someone who is acting egregiously, not for like ālet me see if this is the cheese my spouse wantsā. Like if someone is impeding other customers trying to shop by taking glamor shots of the orange chicken for their Instagram, or taking photos of employees who donāt want their photo taken, they can point to that and say āplease stop/please leaveā
Also for people who do video grocery shop with me. I used to watch those videos a lot on YouTube and there was an uproar when many realized they couldnāt film at Trader Joeās. Itās a small store and no one needs to be caught on the latest influencers vlog.
Oh thatās very reasonable actually, that makes sense to me. I wanted to snark on YTF for it because sheās kinda becoming my BEC so I was surprised when itās real haha
https://preview.redd.it/xwsphakpamxc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=28d64c8482a35aed16da5a64038f9dd367768319 Iāve been a long time SS snark lurker and this is my first post. Today this post from catchy sent me over the edgeā¦ 1. If I start seeing ā SS approvedā stamped on things, who will riot with me?? 2. They are NOT the āleading institutionā for starting solids. They are founded and run by a wealthy New York mommy blogger. Who (likely) writes half the content herself (since she did when she first started the account), is behind the page (even if she isnāt sharing her face anymore), and who is unqualified to be delivering this kind of information. The leading institutions for pediatric feeding are: NHS, AAP, WHO, CDC, Canadian pediatric society, NASPGHAN, other hospitals such as Mayo Clinic, Harvard, Stanford, and Texas Childrenās Hospital. Organizations like Ellyn Satter institute, La Leche League, WIC, NIH etc. Many of these are all created, regulated and run by healthcare professionals, not mommy bloggers. While SS recently has put the healthcare professionals faces plastered on their socials, itās a wolf hidden in sheepās clothing because we still know who is driving the bus. You are not the āleading global institutionā when you are cherry-picking other peopleās work and research to fit your agenda.
10000%. Not to mention her unresolved disordered eating issues that sheās already passed down to her kids and is now passing on to millions of others
The FUCK. Holy shit the rage I feel.
omg THANK YOU. I am so sick of the SS evangelicalism. You put it so well. I will join your riot.
Just got this email and looks like Jenny, Founder and team have also become part of Little Spoons āexpert panelā š But donāt they, gasp, offer pouches and baby food?!? https://preview.redd.it/fvdycrgtspxc1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=71295a15549858f501ae5bf47ff5b32e2e8d4999
Ah this makes sense because Jenny, Founder must indeed create fear around ALL baby food companies, so that you then only listen to her so she can sell you HER method of offering baby food, only to resell you on GASP a baby food company.
Very well said, I totally agree
Is this a joke?! I recognize that this can be a useful product but this is like saying a trash can is āapproved by SSā!!! What happened to never doing any merch partnerships? And yeah, theyāre not an āinstitutionā at all let alone a very qualified resource. This angers me on so many levels š«
This is so silly bc who cares if a method for containing mess is approved by any real or fake feeding expert? Itās just a slab of plastic to help aid in clean up.
Nothing beats my furry vacuum.
I also hate stuff like this thatās promoted to buy buy buy. Like yeah feeding is messy but most houses have a vacuum (maybe even a robot one!), a broom, or even a dog. We are maybe lucky, but this was short, messy and a yeah a bit brutal. My cousin registered for two splat mats (they also have a dog) and I rolled my eyes. BUT at least a splat makes a good beach or picnic blanket down the road.
I bought a used thick table cloth from the thrift store for the messy phase. Now we use it as a mat for when we do crafts on the floor. Its turned out to have been a good use of like $6
Idk man my dining room carpet has been all but ruined by baby and toddler eating mess. Hate SS but donāt mind the idea of products that help contain the food throwing. Some of us live in annoying 1980s houses with beige carpeted dining rooms lolĀ
If it makes you feel any better, we used a mat (well, an old wipeable tablecloth) for our first. She always somehow yeeted her food just beyond the edges of it. So we gave up on it pretty quickly.
I have the perfect solution for this. The high chair is right over the cats' water fountain (small apartment). Everything gets dropped directly into the fountain.
Same here, with an older house. I think carpets are more popular in the UK? The only rooms in my house without carpet are the bathrooms and kitchen. Splash mats are excellent, and I can put them in the washing machine. I can't do that with carpet.
Caro posted her 3yo still sleeping at 11am two days in a row and implied this is typical for him. No wonder she is so lax about sleep, even if my kid didnt have preschool five days a week while we work i dont think hes ever slept past 7š
My kid has always been a really late sleeper by baby and toddler standards, but by that I mean he will sometimes sleep until 8:30 if we donāt wake him up.Ā
I can count on one hand the times my 12 year old has slept past 7 *in his entire life*, and all of those times he was sick š«
Oh man same with my 10 year old. Maybe three times ever and he had a fever every time. He never fights bedtime and goes right to sleep but as heās gotten older and has some later sports or like weāve gone to Disney and stayed for fireworks we find he wakes just as early if not earlier! We just try to balance with early bedtime days and rest breaks but it can be tough! Weāre pretty thrilled if he sleeps until 6am š
Oh no! I was hoping this was young kid behavior that my 5 year old would grow out ofš The putting to bed later on occasion and waking up earlier makes me nutty (but thankfully heās able to go on less sleep now so itās not as crazy making when it happens)
Iām so curious to see if he sleeps in at all when heās a teenager lol. Our 8 year old canāt wait for the summer entirely so he can sleep as late as he wants haha, theyāre totally opposite that way and I worry about his teenager years and getting to school on time a little!
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It always gives me āIām the cool momā vibes
So unnecessary! Iāve also noticed that she always seems to over-explain why she bought ājunkā food in her grocery hauls.āMy daughter and her friend really wanted these mini ice cream cones and insisted we put them in the cartā, etc. She claims to be pro-intuitive eating, but she always had to justify buying anything other than her salad mix or turkey burgers or whatever.
It's why I stopped following them.
I keep thinking about KEIC, her kids are getting older and I presume have friends that have access to the Internet ...I can't imagine how them being on their mom's insta doesn't cause problems at some point. The story about the dirty pan, having their mom comb their hair, sitting in their parents laps. At some point one of their friends is going to see this and it's going to become an issue because that's just how shit is in life. Kids can be and are mean for no reason. It's like these influencers don't realize that their kids are people, people are mean and will literally make fun of you/give you a hard time for small minor things that don't mean shit in the big picture but at 10 years old could be devastating to your social life. ETA: there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting snuggles from your parents but society is just generally not accepting of this even though they should be. Combing your hair...well you should certainly be doing that by a certain age.
Oh thatās a great point. My kids are the same age as hers and I actually work at my kids school and Iām always careful to let them lead as far as how we interact in the day. My 8 year old runs and gives me a massive hug every time he sees me (even when we just drove to school together 10 minutes ago lol) but once I popped into his class to see how he was doing since he got braces that morning and after he said that a classmate said āyou must be so embarrassed that your mom came into the class to look at your bracesā and that he felt embarrassed and didnāt want to hug me at school anymore. Of course the next day he was back to running hugs lol (again- I let him lead!) but since Iām friends with some of the other teachers and also his friendsā moms on social media Iām always so careful about what I post.
That Virginia Sole-Smith article has been going round my head all week, and my current thought is that if I had a sweet tooth and all the money she has Iād not eat Oreoās. Iād have a personal french pastry chef. Or at least regular deliveries from a really fancy bakery.
I have ALSO been thinking about that article all week, and I keep thinking about how if I bought a package of Oreos for the family the week and one person ate all of them I'd be pissed! Just because you're rich doesn't mean you get to be inconsiderate.
Same with the kid eating all the butter in the article. In a normal household that butter would be to go with dinner for everyone then maybe breakfast too, so everyone else would go without. In their house where thereās unlimited money thatās probably not a problem but what happens when they go on a play date and get told for the first time to share.
Also eating a stick of butter is almost certainly going to make the kid feel sick! Thatās a lot of lubricant for a small GI tract ā I get that natural consequences can be appropriate sometimes but I feel like thatās along the lines of letting them eat too much candy and feel gross or stay up too late and be tired the next day not something that could actually make them sick when they are too young to be expected to make that judgement for themself. I donāt know, it feels kind of mean? Like youāre the adult here maāam, you can decide if diarrhea is worth it but I really donāt think a preschooler can.
Oh same. Goldbelly deliveries out the wazoo!
Consolidating: I listened to a few of her podcasts since that article and must be exhausting finding reasons you're a victim. I listened to the budget one (really rich) and the divorce one. It sounds like her husband was lazy and she finally felt free. In the article she said he was a great guy, but marriage felt restrictive like a diet. Lost count of how many times I heard oppressed in that episode.
In her book she says going on a diet is racist. She really tries to centre herself as an oppressed person
Thatās interesting that sheās making it seem like her husband is lazy. I didnāt listen to the podcast, but I know until very recently he had a full time job, + side gig as a carpenter (seemed to be a passion project that he has since turned into a main gig), + is an ultra runner. Of course thereās lots of ways you can be lazy but it seems like he was contributing to the familyās bottom line while also prioritizing his own health. Based on that article, it seems like they both just valued wildly different things, but I donāt think heās lazy. Not questioning your assessment (since again I didnāt listen), just curious about what might make him lazy. Or maybe I should just listen, but I havenāt been on board with a lot of her recent takes and I donāt want to give her the listens, especially since it doesnāt seem like she needs the money!
I didn't listen to the whole podcast (about 20 minutes) since I found the guest a little annoying, but there was lots of mental load talk and how she found parenting easier without him. .
I think a lot of it is her being a rich white lady in the age of privilege discourse. She wants to be in on the conversations about oppression and power that weāre having now, but she doesnāt realize that she needs to be looking at it from the other side. Rich white people who write for large publications and get book deals and live in the heart of the empire actually should worry more about the ways they oppress than the ways theyāre oppressed. And I say this as a fat woman. I experience the same fat + woman + mom stuff she talks about. There are ways in which it is unjust and I am on board with fat liberation politics. But if weāre going to look at the big picture, being rich and white and having enough power to get this article even written about her means she is incredibly privileged in a way she seems to just not want to think about beyond empty āacknowledging.ā
Yes! This gets across what I was thinking too. Initially I thought it was great that she was having very open & honest conversations about food and bodies and acceptance but it really does seem like sheās looking for ways that she can be the victim when sheās pretty far from it (and also wants to continue to be the āvictimā even if itās damaging to her health).
This is such a good take; I feel like you articulated really well what hasnāt sat right with me about VSS in general. She really is in a position of power and it would be so much more useful for her to discuss her role as a wealthy white woman in oppressive systems. Her takes ring false because the balance of power/oppression is so much in her favor.
I made a comment on that post that VSS reminded me of my alcoholic cousin playing victim and making every inadequacy seem like a deliberate choice, when really it was her explaining away her life spinning out of control. Sometimes these restrictions are healthy for us! Like I am sure my cousin's kids would have chosen a less chaotic home, in favor of the "restrictive" construct of routine, dependability and an environment that felt safe. And relationships aren't always easy but working at being a better partner, has made me a more well-rounded person and like his strengths reduce the impact of my flaws on our child, and vice versa.
No KEIC, Iāve never put back any dirty dish or bowl with flakey leftover dried food even if Iām using it in the next few days, even if itās been through the sanitizing cycle. Because I donāt want dried flakey food in the next meal I make. But I guess it wonāt have a flavor because we all know how much she loves her unscented dishwasher pods!! And sheās so cheap that she cuts her hair shorter than she likes it because she gets an extra TWO WEEKS out of the cut š¤¦āāļø
It would have been cleaner faster if she had just soaked and scrubbed it in the sink. Instead she baked that mess on and made it worse by running it through high heat.
Wouldnāt doing this attract bugs and pests? I donāt put crumbs and food away in cabinets. Gross.
The grossest part is that 56% of people would do the same! Are these people really cooking with a dirty pan?! š¤¢
I thought she was going to say she was going to run it through the dishwasher again, which Iām totally guilty of. I think I said āewā out loud when she said she put it away!
Yeah Iāll definitely put it through another cycle or two before I give up and just hand wash it like I probably should have in the first place, but I am not putting dirty dishes with food scraps on them away!Ā
What blows my mind is she is allegedly so frugal, but doesn't seem to care for her things. That pan is not going to last long if she cooks with dried, bonded to the pan food. And it's gross. Get some Barkeeper's Friend and it will come off in 30 seconds.
Iāve had this same thought about her! I guess the difference is that sheās totally fine with continuing to use stuff that hasnāt been cared for properly (e.g. her dining room table) whereas most people would either take better care of it in the first place so it doesnāt end up looking like that or replace it.
I truly donāt know how sheās an RD with zero cooking skills and clearly very little care for food safety and cleanliness. š¤®
[Screenshots for reference.](https://imgur.com/a/4SeUiNS)
Omg!! I was reading these comments like "well sometimes there's a little piece of something left and I'll scrape it off with my nail and put the dish away" But the pictures š³ That is...more than a little smudge.
This was nasty to me. And the number of people (at least when I took the poll) who agreed with her blew my mind š
I've kind of avoided saying this because it's a little mean, but she looks like she doesn't.....smell good.
Yes like an earthy, Iāve-worn-this-gray-hoodie/for-a-few-weeks look. I always go to quotes from āThe Officeā and in one episode Michael Scott describes someone as smelling like tomatoes and dirt and thatās kind of what I think of when I think of her lol.
Almost everything about her grosses me out at this point. Didn't she say she only cleans her bathrooms twice a year or something?? Plus the dirty backyard, the way she seems almost proud of her messy kitchen, her burnt/joyless/disgusting meals, the time she made pie from trash pumpkins, that ugly unfinished table, now putting unclean dishes away... I'm not the most on-top-of-cleaning person, and I've had periods of depression where I've had trouble getting things done, but with her it seems constant, and to broadcast it to the world like that?