Tori Spelling is no stranger to Internet haters — and, sadly, neither are her children. Take, for example, that awful body-shaming her son endured at the hands of social media bullies. But there’s a silver lining: Spelling has a really awesome outlook on dealing with the haters, and she’s equipping her kids with some pretty solid advice on handling the criticism.
“Our family has always been big on talking and communicating,” Spelling told Us Weekly. “That’s really important to me, to communicate with my kids … It is hard to shield them from social media and what they see out there, but they’re really good about it, and they know that people are really mean. They know when they see something that’s negative. That people can be bullies.”
As sad as it is that children even have to hear advice on dealing with bullies, we have to hand it to Spelling. Navigating the world of social media can be so hard for parents — and it’s undoubtedly even harder when you’re a star who is working through the challenges of parenthood in the public eye. But by communicating and teaching her kids that, at the end of the day, mean commenters are just unnecessary negativity, Spelling is giving her children the tools they need to deal with the nastiness that can inevitably come with social media.
Spelling, who has five children with husband Dean McDermott, grew up in the public eye herself, so she knows a thing or two about what celebrity kids face. It looks like her advice is resonating with them.
“They’re like, ‘That’s awful.’ They always say to me, ‘That person must not feel great about themselves if they have to say that about somebody they don’t even know,'” Spelling told Us Weekly. “And I’m like, ‘Oh, my God, you’re brilliant and you’re so young.’ It’s awesome.” Sounds like Spelling’s kids are ahead of the curve, and we could all learn a thing or two about handling social media from the entire family.
