Mum's "genius" hack to get the kids moving
A mum has revealed she lets her children watch cartoon TV only if they walk on a treadmill.
The US woman said she tricks her kids into exercising using her parenting technique - but not everyone agrees with her method.
She shared a video to TikTok showing her 11-year-old son getting his steps in on the machine while enjoying a TV show.
“I only let my kids watch cartoons if they’re walking on a treadmill,” she wrote in the video’s caption.
“One day my 11-year-old walked 16 miles (25.7 kilometres).”
The video has attracted over 2.7 million views with my parents praising her idea.
“You win at parenting! That’s genius!” one person wrote.
“Well excuse me while I add a treadmill to my Amazon cart,” another added.
However, not everyone was convinced of her idea and said she should let her kids “relax” while they watch TV.
“They will talk about this in therapy one day,” one person claimed, while another commenter went so far as to say it was “low-key evil”.
But the mum wasn’t having any of the criticism and said it was “astounding” people claimed her actions were abusive as her “kids love doing it”.
“The volume of people who think allowing a high energy child to choose to walk while watching cartoons = trauma and abuse, is astounding,” she said.
The woman also claimed the method was “really effective” for adults.
“I tell myself I can only watch my favourite show if I’m on the treadmill or folding laundry,” she explained.
Other commenters also defended the mum, saying that those who were criticising her “need to go touch grass”.
“I wish my parents would’ve done this to me,” one person wrote.