@Lauralove5514 is a mom of two boys and a TikTok creator. She practices gentle parenting and the Montessori method of education, which considers children’s natural interests and activities and hands-on learning. Laura’s humor and soft parenting style have attracted over 8 million followers. Her videos showing her parenting her two boys and making meals attract millions of views.
What is it that makes Laura’s parenting style worth watching? She encourages independence and allows them to solve their problems and conflicts without her interference. Followers applaud her parenting techniques and how she teaches them life skills at a young age.
Despite having 8 million followers approve of her parenting lifestyle, Laura has accumulated a fair share of haters.
Why Do People Dislike Lauralove5514?
Laura says she will never exploit her kids for views, likes, or money. She claims her goal is to help people worldwide break cycles of generational abuse. Laura sounds like she genuinely wants to educate people about gentle parenting. But it’s hard to believe she’s practicing what she’s preaching with hundred of videos posted regularly of her children. It appears her two boys only know life in front of a camera. Laura insists she only posts videos with her older son’s consent. Many readers wonder, however, can a young child provide informed consent?
In addition, Laura provides links in her TikTok profile requesting money for her kids and even posting their Christmas wish list. She has clearly acquired some sponsors as well. Her morning shot of espresso and iced coffee from Dunkin Donuts is always front and center at the beginning of several videos. There’s nothing wrong with getting paid for her time as a content creator, but all her content revolves around her children, who she promised not to exploit.
What Do the Haters Say?
Almost 5,000 readers on Reddit have joined a lauralove5514 snark page. This page discusses their annoyances with Laura and her content. Many readers feel like the clumsiness she shows in every video is forced, her videos are heavily edited, and everything is rehearsed.
The creator of the page had the following points to make:
- exploits her kids by filming 24/7 and giving too much information about the kid’s medical history
- clearly scripts her videos (obvious cuts, kids use phrases that are very advanced for their ages)
- makes the kids parent each other -records “harsh discipline” videos which confuse the kids
- makes the kids cook entire meals (including when they had covid
- seems to favor Jonah over Carter
Laura also does role-playing with the kids, showing them what abusive parenting is like.
“I can’t imagine teaching my three and four-year-olds how not to parent them by pretending to parent them in an abusive manner. Maybe my 9-year-old.”
Is She Pushing Her Kids to Be Too Independent Too Soon?
Part of Laura’s schtick is to show herself as being incredibly clumsy. She can’t make a meal without dropping things everywhere.
“I think her forced and fake chaotic cooking videos are worse. She taught 2 year olds to cook and pretends she herself can’t cook. It makes no sense honestly, I suppose it’s her attempt of trying to pivot her content away from her kids.”
She also has her children making snacks and many complete meals on the stovetop. Many parents try to keep their kids away from the stove at that age, but Laura records her child making full meals and even touching the hot pan accidentally. In one video, she hands her four-year-old a tin of crescent rolls and says he’s been studying crescent roll recipes. He apparently thought of making taco-style crescent rolls on his own and went to work making them.
“In the comments, Laura said Carter has been studying recipes for using crescent rolls. Like a 4 year old really sits around reading a cookbook. He probably has crescent roll cookbooks in 20 different languages. “
@lauralove5514 I’m not going to lie, he handled this better than I probably would have… 😳 #fyp #foryou #10MillionAdoptions #montessori #cooking #recipe #viral #parenting #gentleparenting ♬ You Found Me – Instrumental Pop Songs
News sites have picked up on some of Laura’s videos, including where 2-year-old Jonah takes his cart and picks his own groceries. She’s praised for teaching them to be independent at such a young age. However, many question whether her parenting style is good for the children and realistic for other parents to follow.
Do you think Laura’s gentle parenting is genuine or scripted? Do you believe she is exploiting her children for views and money? Can she demonstrate gentle parenting without having her children in all her videos?
This article was produced by This Mom is On Fire.
This is the Lauralove5514 snark page on Reddit.
Feature image credit: copyright Antoni Shkraba from Pexels via Canva