Mother Goes Viral After Being Snapped Taking Her Kids With Her To Work As A Food Delivery Courier

One photo on the subway turned a young Russian mother into an internet talking point overnight. In the image, 19-year-old Lada Koroleva is heading to her food delivery job with her two small children beside her, and the scene quickly sparked sympathy, curiosity, and criticism.

Lada had become a mother as a teenager, and by the time the photo spread online, she was already juggling work and childcare the hard way. What looked like a simple snapshot of daily life soon turned into a bigger debate about survival, parenting, and how strangers judge a family they do not know.

Then the backlash started, and it got messier from there.

It turns out that Lada had no other option than to take her young children to work with her.

Lada says her relationship with her family is complicated, and her husband spent his time playing games and couldn't be trusted to look after the children. He was also due to be drafted into the Russian forces.

Lada had her first daughter, Angelina, when she was only 17. Having to take her young baby to work with her was not unusual for Lada, and she even became affectionately known as the "Courier Mama" in her hometown.

Lada would take Angelina with her in the stroller as she delivered food for another similar job. She later moved to Moscow and began delivering food for "Delivery Club," the job she was photographed doing by a stranger on the subway.

"I love my daughters very much. I worked in delivery because there was no one to leave the children with," Lada said.

Some kind people helped Lada with food and items for the children. They also encouraged her to leave her husband, which she eventually did after the birth of their second daughter.

Lada Koroleva Lada Koroleva

Some people eventually became suspicious of Lada. They accused her of running a scam, assuming that she was using the media attention to benefit herself financially.

However, Lada denied the allegations and invited anyone who doubted her to come and see for themselves what her life was like. Lada says she learned the hard way that kindness is never free, which motivated her to ask people for jobs instead of gifts.

Lada Koroleva

"People started condemning me, saying that I've brought this on myself by having kids, and child protective services also started getting involved," Lada said.

"Besides that, the delivery company was often late with paying out salaries, violating the rights of the couriers."

"I ended up quitting delivery and am now looking for a remote job so that I can take care of my kids. Thanks to my previous job as a courier, I met many people who helped me get a job cleaning apartments and working as a nanny."

After quitting the courier job, Lada now works any job she can to make ends meet for her young family. She lives in an apartment in Moscow with her daughters, separate from her husband, and divorce proceedings have begun.

Lada Koroleva

When Natie Artistry re-shared the photo of Lada on Facebook, it drew a lot of attention. It now has more than 94,000 reactions, 2,700 comments, and has been shared over 77,000 times.

People have been amazed by how powerful mothers can be, especially when it comes to taking care of their children. Lada is most definitely the perfect example of that!

People had plenty to say about the photo.

It also echoes the question of whether you’re wrong for setting boundaries with a pregnant best friend who needs financial help after losing her job, in Am I Wrong for Setting Boundaries with Pregnant Best Friend in Need?

Here's how people reacted.

One commenter thought the criticism was way out of line.

Another reaction kept the focus on how hard her situation really was.

Not everyone was ready to judge her so quickly.

For another money fight, see how one SAHM’s husband accused her of “spending her earnings wrong.”