A mother accused a Chick-fil-A manager of berating her 6-year-old daughter for being “too big” and then kicking her off of the kid’s play area.
Women face an unrelenting amount of unrealistic body expectations and shaming from society—it’s a tale as old as time. While you hope to shield young girls from these woes for as long as possible, there unfortunately comes a day when it happens.
This mama bear says she had to deal with it in a highly unexpected place: the Chick-fil-A she’d been frequenting for years.
In a viral set of videos with a combined 830,000+ views, mom Heather Taylor (@heatherlynne80) explains, while fighting back tears, that her 6-year-old daughter was body-shamed by a Chick-fil-A worker. She says the worker yelled at her for being “too big” to play along with the other kids in the indoor play area.
“If you have an issue, go to an adult. Do not go to a child. She went and talked to my 6-year-old child like she was an adult, telling her that she was too big,” Taylor says.
Taylor says she initially thought the woman was referring to her daughter’s weight, who’s proportionate but big-boned like the other women in her family. Taylor points out that the signage on the play area doesn’t specify a weight limit, just a height limit of 54 inches. Taylor’s daughter is 54-55 inches. “So it’s not like she was overly tall,” Taylor says.
After follow-up conversations, Taylor says she gave the woman the benefit of the doubt that “too big” may have been a poor choice of words to mean “too tall.” But she pointed out that her older daughter, who’s taller and more slender than her 6-year-old, was also in there and didn’t get a word directed toward her.
But, no matter what the woman meant, Taylor is adamant that there was no reason for the worker to speak to her daughter directly. She says that it should have handled it with an adult
“We wonder why all these girls have such issues with their image. This is why,” she says.
Taylor says she wishes a staff member politely told her that her kids were a bit too big for the play area. She says that they would have just left without causing a scene, still having a good memory of the day and with no “emotional, mental repercussions.”
“Because now my 6-year-old has a core memory—a core memory that I cannot take back. I cannot change for her, of being told she’s too big at Chick-fil-A,” Taylor says recalling her daughter continually asking her, “Mama, why was that lady so mean to me?”
“You are an adult. You should be ashamed of yourself,” she says.
@heatherlynne80 Chick-fil-a you handled this so wrong. You should never speak to a 6 year child in that way or tone ever. #chickfila #chickfilahacks #bodyshame #bodyimageissues #mamabear #chickfilahacks #dobetter @Chick-fil-A ♬ original sound – Heather Taylor
In a follow-up video, Taylor says she emailed corporate and claims its response was “sterile” and “insincere.” She says she also spoke to the manager from the day of the incident, the district manager, the care team, as well as left reviews on both Google and Facebook.
When she finally got in contact with the franchise owner, she says he insisted the woman was a great person who’d worked for him for more than a decade and had three kids of her own. After reviewing the videotapes, which had no audio, and hearing his employee’s side of the story, she says the man kind of shrugged the issue away.
“I’m not going after this lady’s job. She just needs to do better,” Taylor says. Taylor says she’s especially concerned because the woman is a manager and is setting a precedent for her workers to also mistreat and fat-shame customers.
Taylor says that even if he was uncertain about how it all went down (since there was no audio), he should have, at minimum, owned up to the fact that Taylor and her daughter had a bad experience and apologized for that.
Instead, she says he gave no apology, laughed about it, and tried to make small talk with Taylor over the phone.
@heatherlynne80 Replying to @I’m human please click on the comment to watch the original video. Thank you to everyone that has left encouraging comments and helped in any way. @Chick-fil-A #chickfila #chickfilahacks #mamabear #dobetter ♬ original sound – Heather Taylor
@heatherlynne80 Replying to @Patrice and that will be the last time i go to @Chick-fil-A . If you have a moment today and want to leave a review for them i would be so grateful. Reading through the reviews seems to show a lack of customer service anyways. I pray that this owner and manager understand thag their actions had consequences and will try to do better in the future #chickfila #chickfilahacks #mamasoftiktok #werideatdawn #momtok #dobetter #customerservice #customerserviceproblems ♬ original sound – Heather Taylor
Many people in the comments section were on Heather Taylor’s side.
“I am sorry that happened to your baby girl. That manager was wrong on every basis,” a person said.
“Call the local news station or the local paper,” another suggested.
“Your daughter will remember you fighting for her no matter the outcome,” a third commenter wrote in encouragement.
“I hope her core memory of this will be her mama fiercely fighting for her,” another echoed.
The Daily Dot reached out to Heather Lynne via TikTok direct message and to Chick-fil-A via email.
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