David Beckham has hit back at critics who suggested that his daughter Harper, four, was “too old” to use a pacifier.
Over the weekend the soccer star and his darling daughter were at the centre of fevered debate after Harper was spotted sucking on a dummy during an outing with her father in Beverly Hills.
One article on The Daily Mail asked: “Why does Harper, four, still use a dummy? Experts warn David and Victoria Beckham’s little girl may end up with ‘speech or dental issues’ if she continues to use one.”
“After about three months, most babies should not need a comforter. Children at the age of four really don’t need a dummy,” quoted the ‘parenting expert’ in the article, “David and Victoria seem wonderful parents and I’m sure they give Harper lots of attention but, like it or not, they are role models and lots of people will see this and think that having a dummy at this age is normal when it is not.”
But Becks is not one to take criticism lying down.
On Monday, the 40-year-old took to Instagram to set the record straight about his parenting, captioning a screenshot of the Daily Mail, alongside a passionate caption.
“Everybody who has children knows that when they aren’t feeling well or have a fever you do what comforts them best and most of the time it’s a pacifier,” David, who has been married to Victoria Beckham for sixteen years, penned.
“So those who criticize think twice about what you say about other people’s children because actually you have no right to criticize me as a parent.”
David’s passionate statement was uploaded on his Instagram account on Monday evening to his some ten million followers .
David’s rebuttal has been met with support and encouragement from fans and parents all over the world.
“You are the parents, you know what’s right for your children and to me, you guys are doing a fantastic job,” one fan wrote.
“My 3+ year old still uses a pacifier. Its one of the only things that gets her through her hospital admissions, so why should i deny her it? People need to relax and look in their own backyard before going down the minefield of commenting on another’s parenting,” another added.
David and little Harper at one of Victoria’s fashion shows recently.
This isn’t the first time the father-of-four has spoken out about his parenting methods.
The soccer legend has been previously resolute about how he and Victoria raise their children.
In 2013 he told Man About Town: “Me and Victoria were brought up with strong discipline by our parents and to have respect for people and our boys have definitely got that.”
“They’ve been saying their please and thank-yous since they were two or three years old. They’re very polite boys.”
“That’s one of the first questions that we ask when we go for meetings at school is about their manners: and it’s one of the first things their teachers say – that they’ve got impeccable manners,” he proudly concluded.
And it seems like their teachers aren’t the only ones who think so.
Family friend and mother to four children, Heidi Klum, gushed about Posh and Beck’s kid’s manners, saying that they were the “most polite children in Hollywood”.
“[Victoria] has the best behaved kids in the world. When we go to all their birthday parties, each of the kids writes handwritten thank-you notes on their own headed paper. None of the other kids do,” the supermodel said.
“They’re so polite and well-spoken, it’s amazing. The other parents stand there in awe listening to the boys speak so politely and correctly,” she continued.
It looks like Harper is in pretty good hands!
