Jessie James Decker won't stand for criticism of her kids. In November, the country singer slammed accusations that she had photoshopped abs on her children, Forrest, 4, Eric, 7, and Vivianne, 8. While promoting Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2023, the mom of three opened up to HELLO! about why she decided to respond to critics.
"I'm a mama bear and I draw the line at criticizing my children," she said. "I'm proud of my kids and their passion for sports."
Jessie's kids, whom she shares with former football player Eric Decker, are "athletes" who love being outside. "I always make the example of like the movie Now and Then, where they're all outside riding bikes and they're playing outside. Like those are my kids," Jessie shared. "My kids are outside being active, always with a ball in their hand. That's what they like, basketball, football, base[ball]. They're always doing something and so I'm proud of them."
She added, "I'm proud that they always want to stay active and, you know, that's just, it is what it is, but I'm a mama bear, so I draw the line."
Jesse shared a photo of her athletic sons and daughter on vacation in Mexico back in November, prompting Instagram users to comment on how "ripped" and "jacked" they are. "Surely this is an app but I don’t see anyone saying as much," one individual wrote, to which Jessie replied, "Yeah I used an 'ab' app on my small children wtf."
Two days after posting the photo, Jessie took to Instagram to defend her children. The Just Feed Me author admitted in a lengthy caption that she hadn't planned on addressing it "because it’s bonkers." "When I posted the pix of our vacation and included the kids being silly flexing on the beach on our thanksgiving trip I had NO clue it would get the reaction it did," she captioned a video of her kids. "But Being accused of photoshopping abs on my kids (I can’t help but laugh) or … the polar opposite over 'overtraining' our kids makes me realize how bizarre our world has gotten regarding the body and what’s normal and what’s not."
She continued, "We preach about body positivity and acceptance but my kids having a mass amount of genetic and built muscle from athletics is 'weird'? I want to raise my kids to feel proud of their bodies and hard work from either Vivis elite competitive gymnastics to Eric Jr wanting to be like dad as an NFL receiver to little Forrest who spends hours dancing his heart out. Let’s not pick and choose what we normalize regarding bodies and be accepting of all people and children."
Jessie concluded her caption writing, "If we wanna do 'better' then do better. I’m proud of my children and encourage them to live their dreams. So we’ll see y’all at the 2032 Olympics, and wearing Bubbys jersey in the stands and dancing at Forrests rock concert✌️."