The bar for what we expect of men in parenting can often be … lacking. Women take on so much of the parenting responsibilities that men don’t have to do much. And many of them just don’t. So when we see a man do anything even remotely positive or noteworthy in the parenting capacity, it’s cause for celebration.
One mom on TikTok decided to prank her husband to see if he would recognize that their baby had been switched out for another tot, and his reaction has gotten the attention of a lot of people online. This story actually first caught our eye over a year ago, and it just keeps picking up traction. The TikTok video now has nearly two million likes, over 8,000 comments, and has been shared close to 65,000 times.
Kat decided to switch babies to see if her husband would notice.
Kat Stickler, or @katstickler on TikTok, wheeled her stroller into their living room and asked her husband to take the baby out of it. Looking down at his phone, he agreed.
At this point, Stickler had already explained to the viewers that she’s switched their baby for another little girl. As soon as the dad looked up from his phone, he spotted the difference and froze.
The dad immediately asked if this was a prank.
“This is not our baby,” he said to Stickler. He repeated it several times before gently lifting the decoy baby out of the stroller, cradling her.
It’s not long before he suspected that his wife was pranking him. “Is this a prank?” he asked. Stickler didn’t respond, and the dad got more and more frantic.
Meanwhile, he was very gentle with the decoy baby.
“Where’s MK? This is not our baby,” he said.
Eventually, the dad said, “This is not funny. Where’s MK?”
No longer able to let her husband suffer, Kat ran in and explained what had been going on.
“I’m pranking you. I’m sorry,” she admitted.
Thankfully, the dad was able to appreciate the joke. Through chuckles, he said, “That’s not funny,” all while still holding the other baby.
'I live in a prank!' the dad exclaimed.
Stickler explained that MK, their actual baby, was outside with Shannon — the mother of the decoy baby.
In a whirl of relief, the dad plopped down on the couch and said, “My heart is beating so fast. I thought you literally lost our child.” Then to the universe, he exclaimed, “I live in a prank! I live in a prank!”
There were a few people who didn't appreciate the joke.
The reactions to the video, which has been viewed nearly 2 million times, were varied. Some remarked on the father’s attentive nature to a baby that wasn’t even his. “The way he picks her up though and still cares is the sweetest,” one user wrote.
Others thought the video said something sad about our standards for fathers.
“When the standards for dads are so low that this is impressive,” one comment reads.
And there were a few people who didn’t appreciate the prank at all, calling it a mean joke.
“Anyone else think these ‘pranks’ aren’t funny?” one user asked. "He was legit panicking,” the person continued.
Obviously this is not the first time Stickler has gotten her husband.
"He handled it well but he’s right, this was NOT funny. Not even for a prank," one person commented. "You just cried wolf and I pray you never regret it."
We have to admit, we did chuckle at the video, but this commenter has a fair point. Just imagine the terror a mom would feel if she were on the receiving end of this prank …
