What to Know
Every mom has her fair share of fantasies. One of them—outside the realm of Pedro Pascal/Jonathan Bailey fantasies—is that her children will actually eat her home-cooked meals. Regularly. But it’s called a “fantasy” for a reason, right? Well one mom may have cracked the code on getting your kids to actually eat things that aren’t Kraft Mac and Cheese or dino nuggets, and she’s gone viral on TikTok for it. It’s one viral food trick you definitely haven’t seen already.
The mom, @mac.larena on TikTok, props her phone camera up on her kitchen counter and makes a big show of the Styrofoam containers she’s pulling out of a big paper bag. Her kids immediately eat it up—figuratively and literally.
“I got ham and three-cheese grilled cheese on garlic cheese bread,” she begins, pulling the sandwich out and showing her kids. “And tomato soup to go with it.”
It’s freaking GENIUS, okay?! Her kids even tell her “whoever made this at the cafe, five stars.” YES GIRL. Five stars for your amazingly creative mom and her solid acting chops.
The clip struck a nerve, because it highlights something parents know all too well: kids’ eating habits are often more about perception than taste. (Or because they’re stubborn little jerks who are spoiled from too many Happy Meals.) There’s a certain magic to food that arrives in a bag, even when it’s identical to what came off your own stove.
Commenters flooded in to applaud her “marketing genius,” swapping their own stories of repurposed takeout containers and renamed meals. If nothing else, the viral moment underscores a quiet truth of modern parenting—because let’s be so for real, sometimes feeding your kids isn’t about nutrition charts or Pinterest-perfect dinners, but about doing whatever works, even if that means slapping a fake logo on leftovers and calling it a win.
“As a 25 year old I actually think this may work on myself,” one person said.
“This is the only form of gaslighting that I approved of, like brilliant,” says another.
“They’re gonna grow up and be like ‘mom you never make anything good’ meanwhile the ‘cafe’ got 5 stars,” another person hilariously pointed out.
It turns out, this mom is pretty good at getting her kids to eat things they normally wouldn’t. In a follow-up video, she shows how she makes her kids supper “out of ingredients they hate” by disguising them cleverly in other, more mainstream meals they actually like.
Because it really is all about perception. I know if my kid saw squash bites or slices on her plate, she’d turn up her nose. But if I put it in the food processor and added it to her spaghetti sauce, no one’s the wiser.
She also teaches viewers that a “wrinkly vegetable isn’t rotten, it’s just dehydrated.” Honestly, same with me and my skin. This woman is just full of life lessons over here!
