
Do your kids like to help in the kitchen? We know ours do, and baking is always a favorite. It's a pretty easy thing, too, if you measure your ingredients and just let them dump everything in the bowl. They feel like big stuff, and you have a little fun together. Plus, everyone gets to enjoy the final delicious product. It's a win/win.
But when cooking with your kids, especially little ones, you are probably responsible for the egg cracking. You've likely heard the saying, "There is more than one way to crack an egg," right? Well, parents on social media are giving a new way a shot, and it's ruffling some feathers.
More from CafeMom: 14 Useful Gifts for Our Little Chefs To Use in the Kitchen
Egg cracking is trending big time on social media right now.
If you are a parent and have been on TikTok in the last few days, you have likely seen a new challenge with millions of views. The #eggcrackchallenge shows parents cooking and letting their kids get in on the action.
As usual, the parents are in charge of egg cracking, but in this trend, the egg isn't tapping on the counter. The parents are surprising their kids and cracking eggs on their heads. The reactions are hilarious, but some people think it's mean.
The kids in the TikToks are usually pretty little.
We would guess that this trend is most popular with parents of the preschool crowd. The older your kids are, the more likely they will realize that egg is headed to their noggin and duck. But the unsuspecting toddlers don't see it coming. The videos usually show a kid shocked, maybe laughing, sometimes crying, and the parents chuckling. It seems innocent, but we must admit that eggshells are hard and probably hurt a bit.
Some people are laughing.
Kids are naturally funny, and their reactions to having an egg cracked on their foreheads are pretty entertaining. One compilation video posted by @funny.fuls has 7.3 million views and 413,000 likes. People love it. Well, some of them do. The video has 5,200 comments, with a lot of laughs.
" I'm dying the little boy with the heck is your problem and a serious face as if he was the adult " a comment reads.
"Some of those expressions are priceless ," a TikToker agreed.
But not everyone had the same reaction.
"That looks like it freakin hurts!" someone wrote. "But hilarious ."
"That wasn't very nice, apologize to the kid's. ," a comment echoed.
And then there were the people who pointed out the tears.
"Not really a fan of a trend making kids cry tho," someone wrote.
"That I is so demeaning!" another person exclaimed. "It's not funny to make your children cry!"
Some say parents are betraying their children's trust.
TikToker @chrissy.629 stitched an egg-cracking video and said that while the mom seems to think the prank is funny, her daughter certainly doesn't.
"To me it looks like this little girl is confused about why the person she trusts most in the whole entire world just betrayed that trust," she said.
She goes on to add that it would've been a better idea for the mother to crack the egg on her own head for a nice light-hearted moment.
Comments were mixed on Chrissy's video.
One person remembered something similar from her childhood: "My dad had me take a swig of Coca Cola the wasn't Coke. It was chewing tobacco spit. I was 5. The 80's just hit different."
Another person commented that these kinds of pranks are fun: " your soft a– would NOT survive in my house. My kids, grandkids ND myself have lots of fun… but let me tell you, we are tough !! ur not."
More from CafeMom: 13 Ways Dads Do Parenting Better, According to Moms
One expert says it's not just about potential emotional damage.
Dr. Rubin, @rubinallergy, claimed in a TikTok stitch that this trend is potentially dangerous.
"There is no reason to hit a child with an egg," he wrote in his video's caption. "There are potential infectious disease and food allergy risks associated with this trend. Why take the risk, even if it's small?"
He explained in the video that raw eggs can be dangerous if ingested. He also said that raw eggs on a child's skin with eczema could cause them to develop a food allergy later. These are the kinds of things that parents likely aren't thinking about when participating in what seem to be innocent jokes.
"It's my professional opinion this trend needs to stop, and parents need to stop doing this," he noted.
While it may seem funny to crack an egg on our kid's head, maybe it's not the best idea. There are lots of other ways to laugh and have fun together. Definitely keep them in the kitchen and develop a love for cooking delicious foods, but maybe stick to stirring, measuring, and occasionally licking the spoon. We won't tell.