I know many people are annoyed by Busy Philipps on Instagram. Busy admitted that she makes much of her income through paid posts. She’s also found success in boosting her profile. I find Busy’s posts funny and she usually tells silly relatable stories. But her latest drama is ridiculous.
The short version of the story is that Busy and her family went to Hawaii (which she documented extensively, of course) and in the flurry of packing to leave, two of her oldest daughter Birdie’s favorite stuffed animals got left behind. Raise your hand if this has happened to you. Yeah, me too. But Busy went on Instagram and ugly-cried about how she felt like an a-hole as a result. And she kept going on and on.
Busy Philipps just wants the best for her kids — and like most parents, has a hard time seeing their disappointment.
The Dawson’s Creek alum and social-media pro revealed late Sunday evening on her Instagram Stories that after a relaxing Hawaiian vacation with husband Marc Silverstein and their daughters Cricket Pearl, 4½, and Birdie Leigh, 9½, they accidentally left behind two items near and dear to their older child’s heart.
Philipps, 38, explained what she called “a total parental fail”: The family packed without checking the bed sheets thoroughly, leaving them to miss the probability that Birdie’s favorite teddy bears, Radar and Flat Bear, were likely tangled up in the linens.
“It doesn’t make it better that, of course, all of Cricket’s animals made it back,” she says through tears after explaining that she and Silverstein split packing duties and Philipps had since called the hotel, who would follow up to let her know if housekeeping found the bears. “I just feel like such an a–hole.”
The star admits in the emotional clips, “I know it’s just a mistake and these things happen but f— … it’s the worst when you’re a parent and it’s your responsibility to keep everything straight.”
And regardless of the mistake being an honest one, it doesn’t necessarily make things easier for Philipps as a mom. “She was just so heartbroken, and I knew it — as soon as I opened up the suitcases to get Cricket’s stuff out for bed, I was like, ‘I didn’t see Radar and Flat Bear. F—. F— f—.’ ”
“So … back to reality,” says Philipps. “I just feel like such a bad mom. And now I have to pick up the mess I made when I opened all of our suitcases and tore through them like a f—ing lunatic.”
I get it, I really do. I’ve beaten myself up over things like this. And losing a favorite stuffed animal/blanket can hit a kid hard. Plus, Busy also added that Radar, in particular, cut the deepest because, “Radar was my bear when I was a kid, and Birdie just wrote a whole thing in English class about how it was her most prized possession, because it had been mine.” But even with all my disclaimers, her reaction was – a lot. I didn’t see the actual posts, but they read like a therapy session.
I’ll admit, I’m feeling pretty smug about my vacation exit checklists for each family member, though.
Maybe it was just a combination of jet-lag, vacation fatigue and an emotional child because by Monday, Busy had found her humor again. Not only did she take a break to post about her exercise class, she started posting updates on Bears-Be-Gone that were theatrical but funnier.
“OK, I have a bear update,” she said as she left the gym. “I called the hotel. No word yet. They haven’t heard back from the laundry facility. They’re hopeful that they’ll have some news today.”
“Bear drama’s not over,” she said. “I’m calling my friends.”
“I feel like it’s like The First 48,” she remarked, referring to the gripping homicide documentaries. “Like, if we don’t find the bears in the first 48 hours, we’re f**ked.”
Personal experience doesn’t allow me to put a lot of faith in hotels finding stuff. Then again, I suppose there’s a different priority level when the missing item is being broadcast across social media with the hotel’s name attached to it. Maybe Busy knows exactly what she’s doing.
I’m not a monster, I hope Birdie gets her bears back. But I also wish Busy would find another way to promote herself. Maybe reconnecting with her Dawson’s Creek cast-mates will refocus her.
After I wrote all this, Radar was found. APBs have been issued for Flat Beat. Repeat, Island-wide, blanket search for Flat Bear:
Awesome pilot is awesome:
Photo credit: Instagram and WENN photos
At the beginning of the post I was thinking, nah, if she makes the money off of Instagram them she should be able to promote tge hell out of stuff she is payed to promote but by the end of it all I can think of is damn, she is annoying. Well, that got her in the news again, People writing about her, and then this post and probably many others ans here I am writi g about her at my lunch break, so I guess it worked. The next time she feels she needs to overexpose her child’s well justified pain to get attention she may want to conteplate in that moment if she is such a super mom as she wishes to be.
Ugh. She is getting really annoying. The photo of her with a griefing Michelle Williams that she posted to Instagram really rubbed me the wrong way.
if she’s not documenting it on instagram it didn’t happen for busy.
I believe that photo was about something else and now I can’t remember what but someone else had the details and it made perfect sense. Most people just assumed it was about Heath.
@SK nope, that photo with michelle was posted on the 10th anniversary of heath’s death. she had posted a story before that photo showing that she was on a plane, then in the next one, she was with michelle. she posted these on january 22nd, the exact date of heath’s death.
someone may have claimed it was for dolores o’riordan as they were listening to the cranberries in one video, but she died on january 15th.
Yeah well MW agreed to it so at least she’s an adult.
I doubt Busy’s kids are going to be real happy with their mom when they realize their childhoods were instagrammed for perpetuity.
It will hit them when they’re older.
I was like oh that would really suck, until I saw that her daughter is on the way to being 10. She should be old enough that busy can explain what happened.. Come on.
A 10 year old should be responsible for her stuffed animals. At that age, I took care of all my packing, unpacking, and repacking during family vacations. Never lost a thing.
Yeah her daughter is almost 10, she should be responsible for her things already. I had to re-read the article if it was the 4 year old or 9 year old who lost the bear. She seems a bit too much!
It’s not about that. She really wants to maximize the chance that they will get the bear back. It’s not like a video game or a fidget that can be replaced. These are special, they have histories and personalities and meaning far beyond their physical form.
It worked to get back Radar at least. Good luck, Flat Bear. May you be reunited with your family soon.
At 10 I told my kids they are to be mindful of whatever toys they bring to a trip. I’m already concerned with the clothes and other stuff so whatever “extras” they bring they are responsible for them. Rule of thumb, whatever you leave the house with should be brought back to the house.
Never lost a thing.
I’m sorry but she’s annoying. Also, anyone else getting major “narrative” vibes from this? She makes all this money from Insta . . . the bear is tragically lost and magically found . . . on Insta. Hmmmmm. Just saying.
This woman annoys me so much, I don’t even have words for it.
I think she’s annoying too. That pic of her crying? Please.
We don’t let our kids take stuff on vacation unless they know the risk of loosing it. I get the sadness and panic but really, it’s ok for kids to experience some minor loss too. Coping skills are important. It’s a balance for sure and she’s probably a good mom but this annoyed me- too much drama.
I vacillate between being entertained by Busy and completely rolling my eyes. She posts SO MUCH and so often on Instagram, she must be looking at her phone a majority of her life. It would be strange to grow up as a kid knowing that every tiny family drama or event is being broadcast worldwide and getting 50k likes. Like what does that do to you as a kid? Sincerely wondering. (PS I don’t think she is a bad mom, but she is literally selling her family persona/dramas for dollars and I wonder how that feels from a child’s perspective).
Glad at least one was found. Busy seems like a sensitive person. Emotions probably overwhelm her easier than most people.
Well all I want to say is that PILOT is HOT !!!!
Exactly! I find the rest of this story frankly embarrassing for an adult person. I understand she makes money from her Instagram, but still. All of this is so stupid, to say the less.
On the one hand I admire her for her hustle. She is likely not getting a lot of offers due to her age, so shilling stuff (but not to the extent of being socially irresponsible like Gwyneth) is alright to me. However, can’t it be done without being sooooooo dramatic like here? Yeah it’s one way to put soft pressure on the hotel to search for the items thoroughly but it’s all too much. Kids can handle disappointments sometimes, try it. They are very lucky kids.
I can pretty much guarantee that the “soft pressure” is very necessary if they want the bear returned. The publicity means the hotel will alert staff and the staff will know it’s a special item of importance to a kid. Adults are otherwise clueless about such things and won’t care. Just look at some of the comments here. People forget so easily how it was when they were kids, with so little control over such events. I am quite sure that Busy’s “drama” over this is a comfort to her child.
Thank you. I’m surprised by some of the comments, too.
I would never broadcast this sort of thing all over social media… but to play devils advocate on how big a deal this is…
My daughter is nine and has pretty severe anxiety. She would freak if she lost her blanket. And I would feel horrible if it was left at a hotel. So I get why this could be a tear inducing huge thing, and why a vacation away from home for a while wouldn’t happen without security items. At the same time, those is why we triple check everything before we leave.
I usually find her famewhoring annoying but I understand this time. Children have security blankets that are emotionally enriching for them. Losing one is like losing a friend to them. They talk to their stuffed animals to get their feeling out-yes even at age 10. One of the teddy bears is now a generational gift-a family member of sorts. And as such it’s priceless. We take out signs and advertise for lost pets, why not for a beloved stuffed family friend?
I also would feel terrible and cry knowing how much it means to be daughter!
I can relate. I actually DID put up “missing” posters (at my daughter’s preschool) when my daughter lost her beloved stuffed Bunnybear at age 4. Bunnybear was (and is) like a very best friend & companion to her (she’s an only child) and she was inconsolable. She had a VTech kids’ laptop at the time and would sit there typing on it at home, telling us she was texting/emailing Bunnybear to find out where she was. It was a very long, sad 6 weeks (you just can’t imagine what this stuffed bear in a bunny-suit means to my daughter), and then one day we arrived at preschool in the morning to a very happy teacher telling my daughter she had a surprise waiting for her in her cubby.–Bunnybear had mysteriously turned up deep in the back of an infrequently-used drawer in the school. To this day (4 years later), I’ve never seen my daughter so HAPPY as she was that day. She actually cried tears of joy.
Toys are also one of the only things that kids “own.” They don’t have control over anything else in their life, but they have control over where they take those toys and what they do with them. That’s why taking them away can inspire such a devastated response.
I still mourn the loss of a dirty little rubber rooster during a move. I can’t even remember his name, but remember what he looked like and how his squeek sounded. He left a little rubbery hole in all our hearts. Well, my heartless parents and brother didn’t give a damn, which was an unfortunate learning experience about my family (so I’m for Busy in all this, at least she cares). But the rest of the Animal Kingdom (which by the way, was a Constitutional Monarchy, ruled by an elephant king and a panda queen) mourned along with me.
I still wonder what happened to him. Did he die of loneliness? Did he find a new home that didn’t mind all the dirt? Even worse – was he deliberately left behind by my mother, who undoubtedly thought he was ugly and useless? Okay, he was a bit snarky, but so was my brother and she kept him.
Losses of stuffed animals (or rubbery ones) are very different from losses of just “things”. Here’s hoping for Flat Bear’s safe return to his family.
…. 😀
This feels deeply relatable to me. I’ve gone on similarly complex just less publicly accessible journeys to retrieve my daughter’s lost blanket and pig. I definetly got weepy about it too.
The mom guilt when you feel you are responsible for your child’s pain is REAL.
busy philipps is a narcissist. making a sad moment for her CHILD public just to make it all about busy and how she failed blah blah blah.
let your child have some privacy here.
This exact thing happened to us on vacation in Greece. We changed rooms and my daughter’s beloved dog got bundled in the bedsheets. My husband and daughter were so desperate that they snuck into the laundry room and showed the house keeper a bunch of photos and drawings of the dog, but they explained that ALL the hotels on the island had their laundry processed through one central factory and it had already been picked up. Three days later, we walked into our room and found the toy clean and sitting on the bed. We all cried.
This person seems freaked out by everything.
She seems really high strung, emotionally all over the place, and needy. She seems like an exhausting person to be around.
Also, her name is annoying. Sorry.
There is zero reason to video yourself ugly crying about this. Or anything really. Everything she does is so extra and exhausting. I’ve met her and she’s nice and sweet and also SUPER tiny – she was smaller than me and I was 5’1 and 103lbs at the time – but now I actively dislike her. Ugh.
I read that she’s 5′ 6″; she looks much taller than Michelle Williams.
Girl I know!! She was on HIMYM and she looked like “the big girl” compared to her waifish friend but she did an event on the north side of Chicago for Cougartown and my friend won tickets and took me (I didn’t watch but was happy to be there) and I was wearing 3.5” boots (I’m 5’1”) and she was TINY. And her wrists were narrower than mine and I was only 103lbs then, soaking wet. I still remember her wrists and thinking damn the camera DOES add ten pounds! Or twenty! Me and my friend marveled about that all the way home.
And THAT is my random Busy Phillips story.
My 2 year old has a bear that we got for him from Build A Bear when he was a few months old, he’s named it Buddy. Buddy comes EVERYWHERE with us and my boy can’t go to sleep without him. I thought I might have lost him once and had a mini heart attack lol. I’ll lowkey be a little sad when he gets over Buddy, that bear is literally in family pictures.
She just wanted a million comments saying “no, Busy, you’re the BEST mom who has ever lived!”. She’s so obvious to me, I get second-hand embarrassment.
I have a three year old who has three special little stuffed friends and losing them would be awful. It would also be an opportunity to reinforce some Buddhist principles that I strive to teach. It would also NOT be an opportunity for a public fiasco! Good lord.
If anyone brought up the subject “precious objects left behind” to my family we would all need to sit for a minute or two to recover from a collective anxiety attack. I think I’ve mentioned that three years ago our baby grandson died. My husband and I didn’t think we would ever recover, and a major part of that was experiencing not just our own grief, but the horrible grief that our son and daughter in law went through.
So, this fall we gave them a trip to New York to see favorite plays. We were there when they arrived home because we were babysitting their two year old daughter. My daughter in law looked in her carry-on for the present they had bought for their daughter. She found it, but then in a shaking voice asked my son if he had Bunny. Bunny was a darling very soft rabbit that my grandson had adored. He slept with it every night. So, after he was gone, my daughter in law began sleeping with the little bunny. Not only did Bunny feel like a link, but he had that sweet baby powder scent. She had taken the bunny on the trip, and they each thought the other had packed him. My son immeadiately called the hotel to ask them to search for the bunny. We texted pictures to the hotel, we offered a reward. My daughter in law was sobbing, blaming herself, and absolutely undone. It took a week for the call to come that Bunny had been found. The hotel Fed Ex’ed him home and we were all so grateful. So, adults too can learn to never take precious items on trips. It’s just too easy to lose them, and older hearts can also break.
That is so sad. I am so very sorry for your loss.
That is heartbreaking, Giddy. I too am sorry you had to go through that tragedy.
Giddy, I am so sorry for the loss of your grandson. That story actually made me cry because I can’t imagine everything you all went through to have bunny missing also…your poor daughter in law. I am relieved bunny was found for them. Big hugs to you all.
It’s superficially irritating, but if her daughter has anxiety/autism/trauma/etc., it’s entirely possible losing it is a very big deal to the kid. My friend’s daughter has combination autism/ADHD, and any sort of major changes – even vacation – can leave her very anxious and unsettled. A comfort object goes a long way. Granted, I wouldn’t broadcast it on the Internet, but I’m not a celebrity.
I could understand if her oldest kid was 5 and this happened, but almost 10? Who cares?! Your not doing your kids any favours if you are expected to be responsible for their “most prized possession” that they couldn’t bother to remember and pack themselves. All this drama because they are the type of parents who haven’t taught their kids how to be responsible for themselves and what they value.
I don’t think it was really about the bear. I think she must be beating herself up about other things but is focusing in on the stuffed toys. I think we have all been there.
I chased a lady and her little girl halfway across a very large parking lot to return the rag doll the little girl had left in the cart. Her mother burst into tears thanking me when I gave it to her. I had the feeling at the time that it wasn’t all about the rag doll. I wanted to hug the poor lady.
This happened to me, can’t remember how old I was, maybe between 5 and 7. I had a baby doll I had named “Katie” after my babysitter’s daughter. Katie got left behind at the waiting area near the gate at JFK when my family boarded a plane to France (which we visited every summer because my father is from there). I specifically remember my sister and I were running around before the flight playing, probably being those annoying kids everyone hates (but my parents probably were wise enough to let us blow off steam before the flight). We didn’t realize Katie had gotten left behind until the flight was already in the air. I don’t remember having a meltdown or crying though I was probably sad and disappointed. However I think I was too distracted by knowing I was going to France to see family. Upon our return to the States, my mom bought be a new baby doll she let me choose to replace her and that is how I got Katie II who now lives at my parents’ house.
I’m glad they found the bear. However I can’t get over Busy naming her daughter Cricket. Wtf.
It depends on if the kid is on the normal spectrum or not.
If this happened to my 12 year old there is a good chance I’d be on a plane going back for it.
Some people have VERY strong attachments to things.
When I was in my 20’s my husband was supposed to pack because I was working.
My stuffed dog was in my pillow, the once I had since I was 2, the one I literally can’t sleep without, the one I had recovered because I lived it to death.
I had a major panic attack
We drove the 3 hours back to San Diego to get it.
I took it because we were working and staying in a hotel there for 5 weeks, so it wasn’t a short term trip.
Some people have things as mental anchors, I do, so I totally understand a parent’s freak out over a child’s anchor being lost.
My kid is bipolar, OCD, panic disorder, social and general anxiety disorder, clinically depressed with sucidal ideation, ADD
If we left my kids stuffed animal I’d be flying back to get it :p
My son has my childhood bear. If it got left behind on vacation, I’d react the same way. No one would watch because I’m not in the public eye. But I would. 🤷🏻♀️
I was a freaking housekeeper/laundry person at a hotel for 7 years and I can tell you her losing her ever loving mind over this is so stupid. Other than undergarments, everything goes to the lost and found no matter what it is. Call the hotel and ask if they found the bears and be done with it. I started out liking this woman and now she makes me wanna throw up every time.