Molly-Mae Hague shares parenting struggle after Bambi biting incident

Molly-Mae Hague has slammed 'gentle parenting' after revealing her two-year-old daughter Bambi has been biting other children at nursery.

The influencer and former Love Island star opened up on her latest parenting struggles in a vlog on her YouTube channel, and said that Bambi - who she shares with partner Tommy Fury - had also been bitten herself.

Describing it as a 'biting pandemic', the 26-year-old shared she had even turned to ChatGPT for help after the nursery didn't discipline Bambi over the incident - and that she was now debating whether to take Bambi for ice cream, as she didn't want to 'reward bad behaviour.'

In a candid chat to fans, Molly-Mae declared 'it's the complete opposite of what I want my child to be' - and said she wasn't sure if how the nursery dealt with it was the right approach.

Explaining in more detail what happened, Molly-Mae told her two million subscribers: 'She's [Bambi] bit another child at nursery today. I know that's sad to come on here and admit. A lot of parents probably wouldn't want to admit that their child has done that.

She continued: "But the only reason I feel slightly better about it is because I had a call last week saying that Bambi had been bitten - and all the children seem at the minute to be biting one another.

"One of my good friends, her daughter is in the same class. And her daughter has been bitten like every day this week. It's really, really sad, it's horrible.

"It's so confusing, because if we talk to her about it when we put her in the car, are we giving her the attention that she wants from the biting? But 100 per cent, if I was watching this video right now I'd be thinking no, you need to tell her it's not okay. Because it's not okay."

Molly-Mae went on to confess: "It's so embarrassing for me, because it's the complete opposite of what I want my child to be. Literally, all I want her to be in this life is kind, gentle, caring, loving and just like so lovely to the people around her. That's what I want her to be to her core.

"And her biting is just so far removed from who I want her to be. Equally, she is two and a half and she is testing boundaries.

"Also, it's hard because at their nursery their way of disciplining is that they don't really discipline. They have very much a gentle parenting approach. On the accident report form that I got about the bite. They were like we've told her that her mouth is for chewing and for eating her food, for biting down on food, and nothing else. But is that really teaching?

"I think that she knows [in] the environment she's in she is not going to get told off, there's not going to be an issue when she does bite. She's not going to have anything taken off of her, or put on a naughty step - or really be told no.

"But, then is that the right approach? Because clearly whatever is going on now isn't working because it is the second time now that it's happened."

Molly-Mae shared that until recently, she didn't know the nursery wasn't allowed to discipline children and said: "I always thought that if Bambi was doing something wrong like she'd be told. I'm absolutely fine for someone to tell my daughter that she's done something incorrect."

She added: "So I don't know, I'm a bit stuck on this one. Probably going to get some comments. I don't know what the right thing is to do? I asked ChatGPT for some advice. I know people will probably have something to say about this."

And fans were quick to comment underneath, with many praising Molly-Mae for her honesty about being a mum. One wrote: "Molly, I LOVE your open honesty with parenting it makes me feel like I'm not the only one struggling at times so thank you."

Another commented: "Your realness surrounding motherhood and parenting is so so comforting." A third posted: "As a fellow mama to littles, thank you for being so honest and relatable. You are the only YouTuber I can relate to on so many levels especially your thoughts on parenting! Thank you for being real!!"

While another fan, who said she works in a nursery, had this advice: "As someone who works in a nursery, you definitely need to speak to Bambi so she knows you are sad and what she's done is not okay.

"We talk about 'using our words' if you are frustrated. Maybe introduce some books about feelings so she can begin to get more of an understanding of the feelings that are going on in her body!

"Then when she's frustrated or upset there are other ways to get that feeling out! And I agree missing out on nice things is also an option - 'You were unkind, show me that you can be kind and we will have a treat another day.'"

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