Even between seasons, Little People, Big World fans love to follow Tori and Zach Roloff’s lives.
But they don’t always like what they see. Not of the couple, or of their parenting.
Earlier this summer, fans accused Tori and Zach of endangering their kids.
Now, they’re worrying about 1-year-old Josiah specifically. And they’re getting on Tori’s last nerve.
Tori Roloff took to her Instagram Story on Friday, August 4, to share a little snippet of her family life.
And she had a theory to go along with it.
She shared that 15-month-old son Josiah had climbed the steps of his older sibling’s bunk bed. And he’d done this without her help. Amazing!
Josiah had climbed up the ladder, and was holding a tablet pen in one hand. And Tori had some thoughts to share.
“You’re telling me: you can climb a ladder and write while balancing on the ladder … but you can’t walk?” she asked.
Tori wrote her theory about Josiah’s mobility: “He’s holding out.”
It is not unusual for children to develop at different rates.
Some will babble one or two words for a while. Other babies might say a complete sentence before mastering their second word.
Similarly, when it comes to walking and crawling, no two babies are exactly alike. And climbing a ladder feels more stable to a nascent toddler than walking.
But most of the reactions weren’t about Tori’s theory about Josiah’s physical development.
Instead, the focus was upon what Josiah had done — either with Tori’s permission, or without her knowledge.
He had climbed up a bunk bed ladder. A fall from that could be devastating, especially for a one-year-old.
Tori saw the barrage of comments. And she responded later that same day.
“I don’t know why it still takes me by surprise with how many ‘perfect parents’ there are on Instagram,” she began.
“Because,” Tori observed, “the amount of people coming for letting my one-year-old climb a ladder is substantial.”
Tori then asked: “Do y’all just put your kids in a box or like in bubble wrap at all times.”
“And,” her question continued, “never let them do anything?”
Tori explained her inquiry: “Because that’s what it seems like.”
As her message went on, she emphasized that she wants her fans and followers to “calm down.”
Tori expressed: “I just appreciate all the tips that you guys leave for me in my DMs.”
We cannot say for sure whether that last bit was sarcasm or not. Context clues suggest that it is.
There is considerable nuance here. We don’t know that Josiah did this without safety precautions or supervision.
This isn’t like when Audrey and Jeremy endanger their kids around dangerous farm equipment and natural hazards. And, also unlike her in-laws, Tori letting Josiah climb a ladder isn’t in service to an obvious agenda.
Sometimes, kids fall. We do what we can to make sure that it’s rare and that the falls aren’t dangerous. But they happen. Sometimes, that’s part of being a person.
Tori Roloff Claps Back at “Perfect” Parents: Do You Put Your Kids in Bubble … was originally published on The Hollywood Gossip.