We have all been there.
You are on your way home, be it from creche or the minder or simply a day out, and you are trying to catch every green light to make it to your front door as fast as possible, just to make sure you are limiting the odds of your toddler being in the car long enough to actually nod off.
Because we all know what that means.
Five minutes of shuteye in the car, and your entire nap-time schedule – or worse, bedtime routine, goes up in smoke, and you are faced with a cranky, tantrum-y kid who does not want to go asleep when he (or she) is meant to.
Sigh.
When my children were this small, I used to sing so loud my voice nearly went, just trying to keep them awake until we got home. I sang and sang and sang, and yet sometimes – often – it would all be of zero avails, and they would inevitably nod off – and voila‚ armageddon.
However, a mum from Texas recently took to TikTok to reveal how she makes sure her twins aren’t asleep in the car – especially when they are rear-facing and she can’t actually see their faces.
In her video – titled Twin Toddler Life – US-based mum Laura shows us all how it is done:
@hi_its_laura Twin toddler life #foryoupage #fyp #babies #twins #over30 #millenialmom ♬ Let Me See Your Foot – laura
“Let me see your foot!”
A must for any parent trying to avoid the 4 pm nap, the twin mum simply calls out to each of her twins with one simple request.
“Jaymo let me see your foot!” she can be heard saying in the video, and the cutest little set of toes peeks out the side of the rear-facing car seat.
Next, she calls: “Jackson, let me see your foot!” and again, an identical little foot flies out to signify they’re listening and are not sleeping.
So simple, yet so adorable. And clearly pretty effective too.
Needless to say, other parents loved the idea, and the clip has since been viewed more than 18 million times.
“This is seriously so cute” one person commented.
Another one added: “I have two sets of twins so I knew these struggles.”
A third parent revealed they used a similar tactic:
“We used ‘Marco’ and waited for the ‘Polo.'”
