Featured Image Credit: SWNS
Topics: Parenting, Social Media
Lauren Lees
A West Sussex mum who says she is branded a ‘slapper’ for being a '4 x 3 mum' has clapped back at critics, saying she doesn’t regret her decisions.
Laura Monnery, 36, had her first daughter Georgia, now 20, when she was 16. She later had Aimee, 17, with a different partner, before going on to have Olivia, 10, and Jacob, six, with her husband Adam, 31.
Laura, who works in insurance, first fell pregnant when she was 15, and later gave birth at 16 - the week before sitting her GCSES.
Laura revealed that she was horribly bullied in school and other kids would taunt her for being pregnant: “I used to get called a slag. They said that they were going to kick the baby out of me and kill it after school."
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Following this, she moved to a school in London specifically for pregnant teenagers, which had six pupils. “It was lovely,” she said.
“It was nice because every one of us was in the same situation as me so I felt comfortable."
She split with Georgia’s dad after three years and went on to have her second child, Aimee, in her late teens with a new partner. This relationship lasted eight years before breaking down, leaving Laura as a single mum-of-two, by two different dads.
In August 2017, she married an engineer called Adam, who she had two more children with - Olivia and Jacob.
Online, people have called Laura ‘disgusting’ for having four children by three different men - known as a 4 x 3 mum - and expressed sympathy for her ‘poor children.’
But Laura defends her choices, stating: “So what if one lady has got 10 different baby fathers? It doesn't matter. I know that I do good and my kids are happy and I’m a good mum."
But despite being happy and settled, Laura expressed how judgement from people can negatively impact her life.
The mother said: "You do have that stigma of 'oh you’ve got lots of kids with different dads, you’re a slapper', when that’s not always the case - things happen. I was young. I was stupid, in bad relationships and it took me until I got a bit older, settled, married, and then you accept it and go on to have more kids.
"On social media people say things like ‘ew that's disgusting', 'how can you do that', 'you must be a slag', 'your poor children'.”
Clapping back at these haters with nothing better to do than giver her the abuse, Laura said: "It doesn’t make you a bad parent because of it but you feel like it. I've got to the point now - I don't know if it's because I'm older but I just don't care what people think. I would basically say to the people trolling, think twice before you even say anything. You don’t know that person's situation.
"The one thing I always think is, why do you care about what other people do in their life anyway? Never judge a book by its cover."
Backing herself, Laura shared: "I feel proud to prove people wrong. I still think to this day my children make me the person I am. I don't think I would ever change that."