House of Stassi has given fans an intimate inside look at Stassi Schroeder’s life today. The show put her personal life front and center. And as it turns out, being a young woman on a reality show is hard, but being a working mom on a reality show is even harder.
Throughout the season, Stassi opened up about the challenges of balancing her career with raising her two kids with her husband, Beau Clark. The honest look at her family situation opened her up to fans commenting on her parenting. And it turns out that even after all this time in the public eye, that criticism hurt her most.
Plus, Stassi’s struggles highlight a much bigger question: why are we still putting impossible expectations on working moms in the big 2026?
Stassi Schroeder opened up about “bad mom” criticism after House of Stassi
Stassi’s life has changed quite a bit over the years. Her new show was her way of pushing past her Vanderpump Rules legacy and showing where she is today. However, that did open her up to a whole new kind of criticism.
The House of Stassi star regularly faces criticism. It’s not new. After all, Stassi’s built her whole career about having a strong and unapologetic personality. But one accusation cut too deeply, and that was fans saying she was a bad mom.
There has been much debate online about Stassi working and Beau being the lead parent in their household. “Beau does most of the parenting and raising their kids. Stassi should step it up as a mother,” tjhaneckow shared on X. Reddit user IsMyHairShiny wrote, “For someone who portrays themselves as close to perfection, I’m surprised she allowed all her faults as a mom to air.”
Stassi appeared on co-star Katie Maloney and Dayna Kathan’s Disrespectfully podcast and opened up about how parenting criticism has hit exceptionally hard. She said she could handle all the other criticism except hearing that she was a “sh*t mom.”
“I try so hard, and I care about that so much,” Stassi shared. “Which is why you see me implode and explode at the end. That was the thing that got triggered. It’s the thing I think about the most every day. It’s my biggest insecurity.”
Would a dad face the same criticism as Stassi Schroeder?
Being a “bad mom” is every working mom’s deepest fear. Stassi admits that she is constantly wondering if she could be doing more. “My whole life, so much of it is wrapped around my kids,” Stassi admitted. “And people are saying, I’m an absent mom. It f*cked with my head.”
Her vulnerability about it highlights a larger conversation about whether it’s just about Stassi falling short as a mother or whether she is being held to impossible standards that so many women face.
In the reality realm alone, many other women have faced similar mothering criticisms, from OG Housewives like Teresa Giudice and Denise Richards to new blood like Ashley Iaconetti. Many struggle with the dilemma of being called a bad parent for trying to “have it all.”
Which begs the question: do dads face the same criticism? It was interesting to note that Stassi received a lot of comments on her mothering, while Beau, who also expressed feeling unfulfilled, received a lot of empathy from viewers. Why is it easier for so many to praise a dad for fulfilling his responsibilities and give him empathy for wanting more, but the same grace isn’t always given to moms?
While Beau has certainly faced his own criticisms on the show, his struggles as a stay-at-home dad are seen by most fans as a question of his “purpose,” while Stassi’s thriving career raises questions about whether she’s being a good parent. Different standards still exist, and even Stassi said that if she were a man, the criticism against her would be very different.
To be completely fair, though, many working moms defended her too because they understand her struggle. And in the end, understanding and empathy for each other is probably the most important takeaway.
It’s time we stop judging mothers so harshly, on and off reality TV
Parenthood is challenging, plain and simple. Gone are the days of stereotypical families. Now, moms and dads have to decide together how to raise their kids. It’s time to give reality moms some grace and stop asking them to defend pursuing a career and living unconventionally.
As Stassi noted, the show only shows a slice of her mom life and not the whole picture, and we shouldn’t be so quick to judge her devotion because of it.
Stassi’s mom debate says much more about the expectations placed on mothers than it does about Stassi herself. Maybe the biggest lesson from her experience is that reality TV moms and moms in general don’t need to be perfect. They need the same empathy and understanding we give every parent who is trying to do their best.
House of Stassi streams on Hulu.
TELL US – WHAT DID YOU THINK OF STASSI’S REACTION TO THE BAD MOM CRITICISM ONLINE? DO YOU THINK SHE DESERVED MORE GRACE?
