A parent has been forced to defend himself after a video he shared online came under fire from fellow mums and dads. The man, known only as @bali_entrepreneur uploaded a clip to TikTok showing his children tucking into a lobster omelette for breakfast. He said: "When your kids have grown up never having eaten Mcdonald's, they opt for the lobster omelette instead." A caption on the post added: "When your kids enjoy the finer things in life."
This prompted outrage from many users on the video-sharing app who branded it "pretentious" and claimed it was an example of "classism at its finest".
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One person replied: "Not everyone can afford to feed their kids lobster omelette."
Another wrote: "I mean that's cool and all, but for sure not everyone can afford it and has to find normal options to feed their children."
"A bit tone deaf this one," proclaimed a third.
Someone else said: "I grew up not being allowed junk and now I use McDonald's to cure my weekly hangovers."
A different user added: "Can't relate - sorry! My kids have never eaten lobster or smoked salmon - they survive only off oysters, pearls, caviar and shredded gold."
The dad has since hit back at the criticism in a follow-up video, further explaining exactly what his video was meant to show.
He said: "I want to talk about yesterday's video, I didn't expect it to gain as much traction as it did. Unfortunately, there were some negative comments, so I just want to get clear what my reason or intent behind the video was.
"There's a lot of references to classism and privilege and everything else which is bull***t, that's not the reality.
"To put it into context, we went away for my wife's birthday and at breakfast yesterday, my eldest son who's only seven, he had a wide variety of choices he could have made including things like pancakes with maple syrup, chocolate croissants, danish pastries, muffins with chocolate chips, but rather than any of that, he opted for the lobster omelette and so for me as a parent that's a very proud moment.
"It reinforces that all the education and all the teachings I've been trying to give him around food and eating more consciously is paying off and so I wanted to share it.
"They've never had McDonald's and I think a large part of him making that decision was based upon that I haven't given them s**t food, they know what real food tastes like and it's not about wealth, it's not about classism, it's not about any of that, it's just about education around food - what benefits us, what feeds us, what serves us, what provides us maximum nutritional value and what doesn't and I've passed that knowledge on to my kids."
The dad added: "Once upon a time I wasn't always like this, I did eat fast food, drank fizzy drinks, chocolates and all the rest of it, but now I make an informed decision not to touch those foods, so if I'm not going to eat those foods, why the hell would I let my children eat them. A lot of people say that it should be ok as a treat once in a while, but personally, I don't feel it should be perceived as a treat for kids, there are far better things out there.
"We all have choices on how we teach our children and I've made mine. I'm not shaming anybody else, each to their own.
"I think my message definitely got misconstrued, people were making emotional responses based upon their unconscious biases and their insecurities when that shouldn't be the case. It was light-hearted, if you didn't connect with it then just move on, get over it, it's not a big thing."
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