Jessie James Decker has hit back at online trolls who criticised her children’s abs.
The 34-year-old singer took to Instagram over the weekend to share a photo of her children on a beach in Mexico. Decker is a mother of three and shares eight-year-old daughter, Vivianne, and two sons, Eric, seven, and Forrest, four, with her husband, Eric Decker.
As Decker’s children could be seen wearing swimsuits that showed off their abs, many trolls went to the comments of the post to criticise them and their bodies.
“I find this so strange,” one wrote, while another Instagram user said: “That doesn’t look right…sorry, not sorry.”
Decker responded to some of these remarks by defending her children and the ways in which they stay healthy.
“It’s a sad world we live in today when having healthy fit kids who are super active, play sports [and] build muscle is naturally ‘weird,’” she wrote.
In another comment, Deck also sent a message to fellow parents who were critiquing her family, writing: “From one mother to another. Please don’t call my children’s appearance strange just because they don’t look the way you think they should? It’s unkind.”
The “Should’ve Known Better” singer also shut down claims that trolls made about her editing abs onto her children’s chests in the photo.
“Yeah I used an ‘ab’ app on my small children wtf,” she sarcastically wrote.
On Monday night, Decker posted an Instagram reel of her children to address some of the backlash. She noted that while she didn’t plan to address the viral photo of her children at first, some of the rumours she’s seen about her editing abs onto them are quite “bonkers”.
“Being accused of photoshopping abs on my kids (I can’t help but laugh) or … the polar opposite over ‘overtraining’ our kids makes me realize how bizarre our world has gotten regarding the body and what’s normal and what’s not,” she wrote in the caption. “We preach about body positivity and acceptance but my kids having a mass amount of genetic and built muscle from athletics is ‘weird?’”
She continued: “I want to raise my kids to feel proud of their bodies and hard work from either Vivis elite competitive gymnastics to Eric Jr wanting to be like dad as an NFL receiver to little Forrest who spends hours dancing his heart out. Let’s not pick and choose what we normalize regarding bodies and be accepting of all people and children.”
Decker concluded her message by emphasising how “proud” she is of her children and citing what some of their achievements in the future could be.
“I’m proud of my children and encourage them to live their dreams,” she added. “So we’ll see y’all at the 2032 Olympics, and wearing Bubbys jersey in the stands and dancing at Forrests rock concert.”
On her initial photo of her children, many Instagram users praised Decker’s family for staying in shape. When one person said that they were “jealous” of Vivianne’s abs and asked how she got them, Decker noted that it was from her being a “gymnast.”
Many celebrities also praised Decker’s family and joked about her children having nicer abs then them.
“I love these smiles,” Selma Blair wrote. “The strength. So in their bodies. Fun goals.”
“How do they all have better bodies than me?????” Alan Bersten, who was Decker’s partner on this season of Dancing With The Stars, wrote.
“These abs on these babies, tho!!! I gotta step my game up! Lol,” Kelly Rowland added.
This isn’t the first time that Decker has hit back at body-shaming on social media. In July 2021, she used her Instagram Story to slam a Reddit page she’d seen that had “ripped apart” her weight.
“It’s pretty awful, and I cannot believe this is still happening in the world – that people are doing this,” she said. “I’m shaking because I cannot believe what I’m reading.”
She addressed how the remarks impacted her and shared that she hopes her daughter doesn’t have to experience any “bullying” like this.
“It is hurtful, and I am such a strong, confident person, and I always have been, but it does hurt my heart a little that people are ripping every little thing about me apart,” Decker added. “It’s mean and it’s bullying and it’s not OK. I hope my daughter doesn’t grow up in a world where people do this to her because it’s wrong.”
