A British mom has come under fire online for buying her children 300 Christmas presents, according to social media.
Emma Tapping, a 27-year old mom of three who lives in the Isle of Man in the U.K. shared a photo of her Christmas tree on photo-sharing site Instagram. The tree could barely be seen behind a huge pile of presents.
Her photo went viral with over 50,000 shares with one online user putting a caption underneath that read: "'Nearly time for all the materialistic parents to compete and broadcast how many presents their kids have on Facebook! Just remember theres some children who dont get much [sic]."
The image sparked a backlash against the mom who was even accused of "abuse" by spoiling her children, misunderstanding the true spirit of Christmas and "pressie-bragging."
Tapping was unrepentant, however, reposting the offending picture of the tree and present pile on her Facebook account.
"Will i post another pic of my tree? You bet your grandmas nipples i will. Seeing as my picture has gone viral (without my consent!) here is my tree. I LOVE christmas I LOVE spoiling my kids in the festive season and I work damn hard to make sure it is every bit as amazing as it can be. So 2 fat fingers up to all the judgemental a**holes and big thanks to all the normal, everyday people who dont really give a s**t about SOMEONE else's christmas tree or got into the festive spirit with me. Merry christmas everyone. Share share share
Speaking to U.K. television show "Good Morning," Tapping said the presents around cost £1,500 ($2,270) to buy and that her children were not spoiled at other times of the year.
"You could buy your kids two presents and still have a little terror, my kids know the difference between right and wrong and they appreciate everything they get and they don't get spoiled throughout the year," she said.
Following the tv interview, the hashtag #TooManyPresents started trending on Twitter with users making their feelings clear although there were people that defended Tapping's right to buy whatever she wanted.
Tapping said she was shocked "by the reaction of people who instantly thought I was a bragging parent with spoilt little brat children. I was shocked how judgmental people were. My attitude is what I buy my kids is my business, no one else's," she said in an interview with Femail, a section of the Daily Mail newspaper.
"The worst comments were for me were about the kids, the lady that stole the picture knew it must of been a kid's Christmas tree, hence 'materialistic parents' (in the caption under the shared image), so that was upsetting that people didn't think about that before judging."