A mum-of-two has divided opinions after revealing she puts her children in a cardboard box when she wants to get work done around the house. Gabriella Dunn has shared her "parenting hack" on TikTok in a video showing her placing her two toddlers into a box with their crayons.
She is then seen vacuuming up around them as they colour in the inside of the box. Her video, which is captioned "Pure genius. Glad we hadn't broken the box down yet", has been viewed more than 10 million times and has around 9000 comments. Gabriella admitted taking the idea from TikTok user Abby Franco, who bragged about getting "30 minutes of cleaning time" in while her little ones played in carboard boxes.
Commenting on Gabriella's video, one user said: "Honestly, some mom's are so genius."
Another user joked: "Thinking inside the box."
A third user said: "Genius! My grandmother used to put me in one - now I know why."
However, not everybody was impressed by the idea, saying it's completely unnecessary.
One user said: "When they get bored and break out and use those crayons on the walls just remember it was your fault."
Another user asked: "Don't they have a bedroom to play in?"
One more user said: "Imagine not wanting to hang out with your kids."
It comes after a mum shared how she gets her children to clean up after themselves without reward or punishment.
Hannah Canavan said on TikTok: "As a single parent household, it’s quite important that we all clean up after ourselves (not that that means it happens a lot of the time!!)
"Here’s how I handle asking the kids to clean up their own mess without rewards, punishments or tears."
In the video, she said: "I quickly wanted to show you how I phrase things when I want my kids to clean up after themselves with no punishments and no rewards.
"I don't want my kids to think I'm going to pick up after them all of the time.
"At the same time I don't need to get mad about it - they're only kids."
Hannah says she tries not to be "non-direct" as it gives them the chance to "fix" the issue - without them feeling like their mum is telling them off.
"Whoever had a yoghurt drink and had a green bowl with a lolly, please could they come to clear it up?", she can be heard asking her children.
The mum reminded parents to "always try and smile and welcome them" - even if they've done something they don't agree with.
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