Parenting Social Media Influencers in the Firing Line After ‘rehoming’ Their Autistic Son!

Myka and James Stauffer are receiving backlash online after they told their regular viewers that they had made the tough decision to ‘rehome’ their adopted autistic child.

Myka and James Stauffer are YouTube and social media influencers. They make money from working with companies promoting products and content. In 2017, they adopted a child from China.

Over the last three years, they have been sharing videos, along with their son Huxley about the adoption process and the challenges that they have been facing. They also monetized the adoption process, receiving donations from viewers for their trip to China to adopt Huxley.

That all changed, however when they shared a video updating their followers and informing them that they had made the hard decision to place Huxley in a new home. It was this video that has sparked outrage from some of her followers and is continuing to draw angry commentary from people around the world.

Stauffer posted a video titled ‘an update on our family’ on her YouTube Channel on Tuesday

“This is by far the hardest video James and I have ever publicly had to make,” Myka Stauffer said during the video to her followers.

“With international adoption, sometimes there’s unknowns and things that are not transparent on files and things like that,” James Stauffer said. “Once Huxley came home, there was a lot more special needs that we weren’t aware of and that we were not told.”

Despite multiple therapies, medical assistance, interventions, and assistance, they claimed that they could no longer provide Huxley the specialized medical care that he needed.

“After multiple assessments, after multiple evaluations, numerous medical professionals have felt that he needed a different fit and that his medical needs — he needed more,” Myka Stauffer said while crying on the video.

Over the last few months, the social media influencers had received multiple comments from viewers about where Huxley was and why he wasn’t being featured in any of their videos. They commented during the video that they had omitted him from videos to avoid any legal problems during the adoption process.

“I didn’t want to mess up anything with what’s going on legally,” she said, later adding, “The reason we haven’t updated you sooner is because the medical professionals, the agencies, multiple people have been allowing for Huxley to spend time with some different people to see and to make the perfect match and fit for his now new forever family.”

Towards the end of the video, the Stauffer’s asked their viewers to “give us grace” and to respect their privacy as they grieved for the loss of their son. However, while they received a lot of positive and supportive comments from some viewers, other internet users weren’t as happy.

Multiple groups online have gone on to demand that people like the Stauffer’s, social media influencers that profit from their children, are held more accountable for their actions and the decisions that they make—calling on companies to discontinue their relationship with the couple.

How do you feel about what happened?  Let us know in the comments below.