When it's Kim Kardashian's birthday, she can cry if she wants to.
And she did, so to speak, on this week's episode of her family's reality show The Kardashians.
Kardashian, who turned 43 on October 21, has been lamenting being a single mother following her 2021 split from her ex, rapper Ye, with whom they share four children, North, who is 10, Saint, 8, Chicago, 6, and 5-year-old Psalm.
She made clear her feeling about single parenthood when she compared spending her birthday with her kids to being "tortured."
Yikes.
In the episode of the reality show, the SKIMS founder told her mother, Kris Jenner:
“I thought my birthday, I'd have a day to myself. I was stuck doing everything that everyone else wanted to do."
"I was stuck watching YouTube unboxing videos on my birthday. I had a FIFA tournament. Color Me Mine — you should see the ugly thing I made."
"This is not what I wanted to be doing on my birthday."
She continued:
“I need to sit my kids down and be like this isn't Mother's Day. Like this is my day."
"Do you think a mom wants to go to Color Me Mine one more time on her birthday? Whose birthday is it?"
"I know I was tortured. Just make me breakfast. That's a great birthday.”
Although some viewers sympathized with the distressed mother, many on social media thought describing a day with her children as torture was uncalled for.
On Reddit, many users didn't hold back when commenting on her complaint on the Kardashians' subReddit.
One user said:
"No one wants to parent their kids these days. Get your f*** ass up and work!"
A fellow single parent noted Kardashian's privilege, writing:
"I don’t doubt that she has difficult moments parenting but she is acting soooooo self unaware to complain about it constantly when her fans have the same parenting struggles, WITHOUT all the help."
"I am a single mom. I have a difficult coparent. I have a professional career but with expenses so high and my child’s school so expensive, I am paycheck to paycheck. Every vacation day I have is spent caring for my child when his school is out."
"I have not hired someone to clean my home since my child was born. If I could afford to hire a cleaner just once a month, that would fundamentally change my life."
"If I could hire one full time house keeper and focus exclusively on my son instead of an endless grind of cleaning and chores, my life would be immensely better. She is rich enough to own a private plane and she thinks her life is hard? Pound sand, Kim."
"And no matter how hard it has ever gotten, I would never EVER prefer to spend my birthday [without] my child. He is my heart and soul."
A third user said:
"Idk if she’s trying to come off as relatable or something but whenever she complains about her kids it comes off really poorly. Yes, kids are difficult and no one is saying it’s always a cakewalk to deal with them."
"But when you have the kind of resources Kim has, it’s so tone deaf to listen to her say this. If she wants a break, she can have one. She can have multiple breaks. She has a staff. She can hire the best of the best in childcare."
"It’s also a bad look to open her kids up to criticism for their bad behavior. She needs to rethink how she’s handling this."
One fan compared her to Kardashian's older sister, Kourtney, saying:
“Only Kim would describe spending time with her kids as torture."
"Kim is the complete opposite of her sisters. Kourtney last year spent her birthday with her kids and step children and she was the happiest of all!”
Her comments didn't land well on X (formerly Twitter) either.
During the show's confessional, producers asked Kardashian:
"What would your perfect birthday have been?”
She replied:
“To lock my door. Not get out of my bed and eat cookies and cream ice cream all day long."
"That's what would have been my dream and no one cares about my dreams, not my four kids at least.”
Following her confessional, Kris Jenner, 68, entered the chat.
The mother of six said her second eldest daughter needs to "suck it up."
Said Jenner:
“I think that we've all, as moms, been through some days where we don't want to be doing what we're doing, but we do it for our kids. So, come on, Kim. Suck it up, do a little Color Me Mine."
Kardashian added in her confessional that her approach to parenting was a combination of that of her older sister Kourtney and younger sister Khloé.
“I'd say I'm like half of a Khloé parent and half of a Kourtney parent.”
“Kourtney’s like, ‘It's all love, do what you want,’ you know, but then I also get Khloé and I get that order but it's difficult for me to be a really strict parent. “
