What to Know
When it’s cold outside, it’s not easy to find indoor play places that work for all kids. Or, indoor playgrounds that aren’t overcrowded or super expensive. One mom’s solution to this is to use Target as the perfect place to try out toys, place them back on the shelves a few hours later, and head home for her toddler’s nap. Well, more or less.
A mom shared her apparent hack in a TikTok video that quickly went viral because of the hate she got for it. In her video, the mom shows her toddler son playing with toys at Target. On the screen, she wrote that it’s like a “toy library.” As in, her toddler can play with toys, potentially dent and rip the packaging, and then go about his day once they leave. Other parents were quick to call out the mom, and if it isn’t rage bait, the playtime idea probably isn’t the best way to help a kid burn off some energy.
@jennyg783 Census Says!!? (In my best Bob Barker voice)
♬ original sound – jennyg783
Target is an alternative play place for this particular toddler.
The video isn’t too long. It shows the toddler playing with some packaged toys, and to be fair, the mom doesn’t take the toys out of the packages while at Target. But the issue other people, most of them parents, have is that the mom is using Target for something that it isn’t. Her behavior is on par with influencers who use Target and other department stores as sets for their content. It’s not cute.
“How much time do you kill at Target just letting the littles play?” The mom wrote on the screen. “I’ve gotten a few good hours in…it’s like a toy library [without] the card.”
I mean, she could also just go to the actual library.
These days, a lot of libraries have children’s sections that are on par with indoor playgrounds anyway. At the very least, her local library might have toys for her kid to play with that are meant to be played with.
“This is one of the tackiest things I’ve ever seen,” one user commented on the TikTok. A second added, “As he drags the new products all over the ground, causing wear and tear before a consumer even has the chance to purchase.”
Someone else wrote, “This is why so many toys are broken or dont work probably because parents do this. Can you please stop? This is a store not a park or a museum.”
For some, the issue is that the mom is actually causing more work for Target employees by taking up space in the toy aisles and camping out, so to speak, so her kid can play for literal hours. I’m all for trying out toys to make sure they’re worth it, but this takes it to a whole other (totally unnecessary) level.
