I love social media, especially TikTok.
Those conspiracy theories about aliens or ghosts “caught on tape” get me every time, but my favorite videos are all the hilarious moms posting dance routines, cleaning hacks, and moving tributes to time spent alone in the car at Costco.
Usually, the comments sections on TikTok are incredibly supportive and sometimes even more entertaining than the video itself.
But since this is social media, you just know that there will be folks out there who love nothing more than to ruin everything with their crappy attitude.
Take this ultra viral video from TikTok user @Lauralove5514 as a prime example of what I mean.
Lauralove5514’s account is all about gentle parenting and Montessori activities.
She posts tons of great content about her child being independent, including cooking for himself. He isn’t even two yet.
This kid has his own working kitchen and makes his own food.
She’s not shy about sharing the kitchen adventures her child goes on, and as a result, she’s grown an audience of more than 1.7 million followers.
But it was when her adorable kiddo made himself avocado toast that the comments section exploded into a forum of mom bashing that left me raising an eyebrow at how nasty people can be.
In the viral video that has been viewed more than 20 million times, we watch as her son, Jonah, sweetly toddles around his wooden kitchen, peeling and mashing the avocado.
@lauralove5514 He did so amazing!! ?? #fyp #foryou #montessori #toddler #gentleparenting #viral #montessorimom #functionalkitchen
We can hear Lauralove5512 narrating and pointing out how impressed she is that her son smartly sliced the avocado to make it easier to mash.
She says,
“kids are so capable of self-correction. By allowing your child to figure it out on their own, they come up with some amazing ideas, and it also helps them work on those problem-solving skills.”
This cute one-year-old slices, mashes, and seasons his avocado before schmearing it on bread and sitting down at a table to enjoy his snack.
As a mother, I watched this and thought, “Hey, wow! I bet my kids could do this; I should try it out!” But apparently, the comment section of this video had a very different take.
One use commented, “Capable? All he did was make a mess.”
Another felt personally attacked and wrote, “I could’ve of done this better and faster just saying.”
Some felt the need to point out that a one-year-old child cooking is apparently not as neat as an adult. Like this guy who wrote, “half of it is on the floor.”
Really, people?
Hands down, the most popular comment was from folks pointing out that this kid ate his toast upside down.
What is it about a video of a small child learning to do something and a mom who is clearly proud of her child that just pisses people off? Like this comment from a person who seems to be enjoying that this kid ate his toast all wrong.
Lauralove5512 took it all in stride though. She posted a follow-up video where she pulled out her gentle parenting voice to school the jerks who left mean notes in her viral video.
@lauralove5514 Thank you to those who are kind & suportive & not bullying toddlers?? #MakingTheCut #GetYourJeansOn #fyp #foryou #montessori #toddler #cooking
In the follow-up post, she points out that her child is really still a baby.
He’s 19 months old, and for him, these skills aren’t about perfecting skills it’s about developing independence and self-reliance.
“Thousands of people called me a liar and said that I am telling him exactly what to do behind camera, which isn’t true,” Lauralove5512 says in the follow-up video.
“Luckily, most of the comments were kind, but let’s just put this into perspective for a second. This is a one-year-old child, 19 months to be exact, making avocado toast by himself. If you ask me, that’s pretty incredible.”
She is absolutely right. You would think that in a world that complains that our kids are too coddled these days that anyone proving that kids can be capable of doing seemingly adult tasks on their own would be enough to change the conversation about what we expect kids to do.
Instead, though, the mother was accused of being a liar and grown-ass adults were totally ok with making fun of her child for not meeting some imaginary standard.
“Mess is all part of the process. I don’t expect him to be perfect, that defeats the entire purpose of doing this,” Lauralove5512 explains in her video.
“People see a one-year-old child doing this and they can’t believe it. They cannot believe that child can be so independent. But that is one of the main purposes of my channel, to show you that kids are so capable. So, thank you, to those who were kind.”
Here’s to hoping Lauralove5512 makes more videos of her sweet kids proving everyone wrong about what little kids can be capable of.
Let’s just hope the trolls take it down a peg or two before they wipe the cheese dust off their keyboards and leave more hateful comments.