Caitlin Emmaline (@caitlin.emmaline), a certified nurse midwife (CNM) and mom of soon-to-be two kids, shared a free toddler arcade hack she uses to keep her son entertained on TikTok — and people had thoughts.
Emmaline has 53.8K followers on TikTok, and she shared what she called a “hot tip” in a video that quickly went viral, amassing over 12.5 million views.
The tip boiled down to simply taking her toddler to a local arcade, but not actually buying tickets or tokens to play any of the games. Instead, Emmaline lets her toddler run around, “dance,” climb on and off the rideable and interactive games, and press buttons to his heart’s content.
“He’s having a great time,” she added. “I spent zero money. He doesn’t know what the h*ll is going on.”
Emmaline explained in her video that she had posted her original “hot tip” arcade hack a year ago, and in her newest, follow-up video, she noted that a year later, she is still taking her toddler to the arcade without paying for rides or games. And he’s still having a fantastic time.
“A year later, it’s still tried and true,” she said.
Take Your Toddler to the Arcade
After receiving some backlash from her “hack,” Emmaline did issue two caveats in her follow-up video:
- She explained that she tends to only go to the arcade early in the morning — she said it was 7:30 a.m. when they visited, for instance — so there was practically no one else there and she wasn’t “taking up anyone else’s spots.”
- She made sure to buy a drink and a snack to support the business. The arcade she visited even had a coffee shop, so as a mom, she felt it was a win-win that her son got to play and she got a coffee first thing in the morning.
As a certified nurse midwife, Emmaline often works 24-hour call overnight at the hospital, so it makes a lot of sense why she would be up first thing in the morning and in need of a little caffeine and an activity to keep her little one occupied.
Emmaline further defended her position by pointing out that spending money for a toddler at an arcade would be wasteful, as they don’t have the ability or attention span to actually stay on a ride or game long enough to complete it.
“They just climb on and off the stuff, push all the buttons, and even if you tried to put money in, they wouldn’t stay on the machine long enough,” she said.
While a few people criticized Emmaline for her hack, she received a lot of support in her follow-up video, praising both her resourcefulness for toddler entertainment and being a face for exhausted moms everywhere just trying to keep their kids happy.
Other parents chimed in with their versions of free kid entertainment.
“Arcade, Bass Pro Shop, and PetSmart are our free go-tos,” commented @lovahlaura.
“We go to Chuck E. Cheese for us,” added @alyssaruch24. “My son is 1.5, he doesn’t know wtf is going on.”
“My kids were 5 and 6 before they learned that if you add money to the cars at the mall, they do more,” laughed @kelseyrae702. “They’d sit on them and play for hours.”
“God forbid a mother want to take a break,” summed up @ticklemyfutaballs.
