Hands down the cleverest thing we have seen.
If you have ever been the parent of a clingy baby, one that will literally go into hysterics if you leave the room to use the bathroom or make yourself a well-earned cup of tea, well, then you'll definitively agree this is all sorts of genius.
This was the case for Japanese mum Fuki Sato, who came up with the clever idea to use a life-sized cardboard cut-out of herself to trick her one-year-old that she was still in the room – even if she had briefly left it.
Sato's husband filmed the whole thing, and honestly – this is what the internet was made for.
The dad, who goes by the name of @sato_nezi on Twitter shared the whole affair online where Fuki's ‘hack’ soon went viral. He later explained to
Metro.co.uk that his son was swiftly won over by the cut-outs.
In videos, the tot was seen gleefully playing away but catching glances at his mum. And for the parenting police wondering thinking this is neglectful, don’t worry, the dad was there. Fuki was also able to pop in and out every 20 minutes to make sure all was well while the son was turned away.
In one cut-out, Fuki is seen standing over the baby pen but out of reach as the toddler plays away. In another, she is crouching down as if lovingly watching over him.
Cleverly, both cutouts were left at a bit of a distance from the child, so he wouldn't just run over to his mum and expose the trickery.
And guys, it clearly worked!
And so if you are stuck with the same can't-leave-without-them-howling conundrum, well, then you know what to do!
(And PS: For those thinking this was neglect, the dad was clearly in the room – and the mum was in the apartment too, and able to pop her head in now and then to see how the experiment was going!)
