Mom Delivers Perfect Response To Stranger's Public Body-Shaming

“I think your clothes are a little too small for you”

When moms run to the grocery store, it’s pretty common knowledge that a majority of us aren’t exactly heading out the door in our wardrobe’s finest. The grocery store is the kind a place for yoga pants and a hoodie, or any other form of athleisure — because shopping with kids in tow is full-on cardio, as we all know.

So when mom Charli Stevens made a quick trip to her local grocery store, she looked exactly like any one of us when we run to the store. Which apparently wasn’t good enough for a complete stranger she ran into while there, who decided to publicly body AND outfit-shame Stevens.

She said while at the store, she noticed a woman staring at her. “I hate when people stare but didn’t say or do anything,” she writes. “A couple minutes later, she came up to me and said ‘I think your clothes are a little too small on you.'”

*Record scratch*

Oh HELL no. Who are these people? The ones who feel not only compelled, but entitled to comment on a perfect stranger’s appearance? Unless you’re being kind and complimentary or referencing the weather, there’s literally no reason on earth to speak to a stranger at all.

Stevens writes that she was completely caught off-guard and thought perhaps she misheard. “I said, ‘Excuse me?’ And she said, ‘Well no offense but you’re just a bit big to wear those type of clothes.'” She says she was completely frozen in shock, as the woman continued to berate her for her outfit choice: “I’m not trying to be mean but maybe just reconsider your outfit before leaving your house from now on.”

“I’m not trying to be mean, but” is the new “No offense, but.” GTFOH with that bullshit. If you have to preface a sentence that way, you may as well be wearing a sandwich board that reads “I’m an utter asshole” on it.

Stevens, who was at the store with her four-month-old son, said she left without buying anything and sat in her car and cried. “How are people so rude?” she asks. “It’s no secret that I’ve gained weight throughout life. I’ve birthed two kids so it’s bound to happen. Do I realize I’m overweight? Yes. Do I want to be smaller? Yes. But am I okay with the way I look? Yes!! Why would a complete stranger go out of their way to insult someone?”

I know my “mom bod” has made me more insecure about my body than ever before. But I’m healthy, my kiddo is healthy, and I often eat whatever scraps she leaves behind on her plate and rarely get as much exercise as I’d like to. It happens. Many moms find ourselves in similar life phases — that doesn’t give anyone, let alone a perfect stranger — the right to be so incredibly thoughtless and hurtful.

“My clothes were tighter than what I would normally wear but so what?! It shouldn’t matter what people wear,” she writes. Bottom line: can’t we all just be nicer, or at the very least, mind our own goddamn business? This was so easily avoidable.

“I’m not writing this for sympathy but just as a plea to anyone who might read this to just be nice and have respect for people,” Stevens concludes. “I fear for my daughter to grow up in this world. We’ve gotta set a good example for our children.”