A woman who was recently hospitalised has condemned her mother’s unwavering commitment to her fitness goals after the “almond mom” paced around her daughter’s hospital room in an effort to complete her step goal.
Sadie, who goes by the username @s.s.training on TikTok, uploaded the video of her mother, which was taken from the TikToker’s hospital bed, to the platform earlier this month. In the clip, Sadie’s mother could be seen wearing AirPods and workout clothes as she walked back and forth around the small hospital room while holding her phone in her hand.
“I’m literally in the ER and my almond mom is just pacing around so she can still get her steps in??” Sadie wrote in a text caption on the video. In the caption, Sadie also revealed that her mother had asked if she could “do push ups in the corner” of the room because she’d had to miss her workout class to meet her daughter in the hospital.
The term “almond mom,” which has resurfaced recently as a critique of diet culture, stems from a 2013 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills starring Yolanda Hadid and her then-teenage daughter Gigi Hadid.
In the scene, Gigi told her mother over the phone that she was “feeling really weak” because she’d only eaten “half an almond”. In response, Yolanda encouraged the 17 year old to “have a couple of almonds and chew them really well”.
The TikTok video, which has been viewed more than six million times, has sparked criticism of Sadie’s mother, with many calling her behaviour “sad”.
“This is so sad, I’m so sorry,” one person commented, while another said: “That’s unbelievable and disrespectful. I’m so sorry.”
According to someone else, they would have asked their mother to leave the room if they’d found themselves in the same situation as Sadie. “I’d cry and tell her to get out,” they wrote.
Others shared their own stories of their parents engaging in similar behaviour, with one person revealing that their mother “blamed [them] for ruining her 30-day Peloton challenge” when they were in the hospital.
Although the majority of comments were critical of Sadie’s mother, others defended the parent’s behaviour, with some arguing that walking could be how she deals with stress.
“How is this bad? She wants to be active when she can. This is normal to me,” one person claimed, while someone else said: “Walking around like this would help me relax if I was in the ER. If not, I’d just be sitting down fidgeting around.”
“Is she supposed to just sit and be bored?” another person asked.
In a follow-up video, Sadie, who revealed that she’d been hospitalised because of inflammation of her appendix and intestine, defended her mother on the basis that she’d shared the video as a “joke”.
The TikToker also addressed comments that had accused her of being equally obsessed with fitness, with Sadie, who regularly posts videos at the gym, claiming that her behaviour was inherited.
“A lot of people are really upset about the video I posted of my mom pacing around my ER room trying to get her steps in. And my favourite comments are the ones of people saying: ‘Well, your whole page is just fitness content, your whole life revolves around the gym too,’” Sadie said, adding: “Girly, where do you think I got it from?
“You’re in my comments telling me I need to stop judging her because I have the same problem… like just think about that for a second.”
In the video, Sadie then claimed that, “when you’re raised by someone who’s obsessed with the gym and can’t take a day off even when her daughter is in the ER,” the behaviour is passed down.
“How do you think I’m gonna end up?” she continued. “Why do you think my whole life revolves around the gym? You are literally just proving my point.”
The TikToker also clarified that she was grateful that her mother came to the hospital and spent the “whole day with [her] in the ER”.
In the TikTok, Sadie then proceeded to defend herself and her mother from criticism, with the 21 year old telling viewers her mother’s relationship with food and exercise and her own relationship with food and exercise is “none of [their] business”.
“Also, my relationship with my mom and her relationship with food and exercise, and my relationship with food and exercise is none of your business,” she continued, adding: “I literally posted it as a joke.”
However, after confirming that her mother actually had paced around the hospital room to reach her step count, and asked whether she could do push ups in the corner, Sadie noted that she was “not trying to attack her”.
“And I was not trying to get five million people to attack her either,” she added, before reminding her followers that “everyone copes with trauma in different ways” and that she uses “humour” to cope with hers.
The Independent has contacted Sadie for comment.
