Mom does "I'm so hungry I could eat a kid" trend
"You can eat me? No, Mommy, you think I am food?"
We've seen many parents dive into social media trends with their kids, and while it may seem like great fun, it can be harmful to your kids in the long run.
The most recent "I'm so hungry I could eat a kid" TikTok trend has some experts warning parents not to be so blasé.
This trend sees parents recording their tiny tots' reactions while telling them they are so hungry they could eat a kid.
We found a video of a little boy with quite an online reputation for melting people's hearts with his cuteness overload.
Zuluboy has over 400,000 followers on TikTok, and his mother tried the trend out on him. Check out the video from TikTok below.
@zuluboy129 Replying to @Thami Zulu ♬ original sound - Zuluboy
Experts interviewed by Parents.com shared their views on how kids experience this trend.
Patricia Bathurst, a licensed marriage and family therapist at The Oasis Rehab in California, acknowledged that most of these videos aren’t made with bad intentions.
Still, she says parents should avoid taking part if they think their child could be genuinely upset. A moment of online amusement isn't worth risking your child’s trust, especially since many young children won’t even understand the joke.
Another expert explained that kids under four often struggle to grasp sarcasm and take things very literally. In many cases, they simply mimic the parents’ reaction, not realising they’re the punchline.
As Parents.com put it, when parents join in on this kind of humour, they might unintentionally teach their children that making fun of others for entertainment – or attention – is acceptable.
While some might dismiss it as harmless fun, it’s worth considering the message kids are absorbing, especially if they begin teasing other children because they think it’s just a joke.
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Image courtesy of TikTok