The Internet is a strange place sometimes. One day people praise the dumbest of idiots, and the next, they’ll be canceling someone for making the tiniest mistake. One day, Gabrielle Lynn Dunn, a mother of two sweet baby daughters, really felt what it’s like to be in the middle of that storm after posting a simple and easy parenting lifehack on TikTok.
The idea behind the hack was to deal with kids in a way that would keep them occupied while giving the parent some time to do chores, read a book, etc. To make this happen, Gabrielle grabbed a big cardboard box from the trash, put her adorable children inside, and gave them crayons to draw on paper walls, while she cleaned up the house. Isn’t that genius? Well, not everyone sees it that way.
For some reason, the comments under this extremely helpful lifehack video were so polarizing and controversial that her TikTok went viral. Some users were disgusted by the trick, calling it cruel and lazy because what will happen when kids get bored and start tearing up the box, or worse – use crayons on the nice and clean walls? Besides, doesn’t this send the message that it’s okay for children to doodle on the walls? Not to mention, why wouldn’t a parent want to hang out with their kids? These and many other “hot takes” come from people who have clearly never had to deal with kids.
On the other side, there were more adequate reactions from people who praised Gabrielle and said they loved the idea and would definitely use this approach at some point. One commenter even wrote that she was thinking “inside the box,” which is the best pun I’ve seen all day. Some also admitted that their parents did something similar, so it’s not a new thing. At least, out of over 10k comments, most are positive and supportive.
No matter how bad you feel for those kids getting dumped in a huge box for half an hour, you have to keep in mind that they’re not your children, and you have no input on what their mother does and how she raises them, aside from cases when there’s some actual harmful behavior. Then you’re free to cancel that parent and call the social workers.
The good news is Gab’s TikTok video currently has more than 12 million views and almost 1.5 million “likes” after going viral.
