Photo: @dustinshally / TikTok
He claims the baby was left unattended for three minutes.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Nov 10, 2022
A man has sparked a parenting debate after reprimanding a young father for what he did with his baby in a mall.
The video and incident received mixed reactions from parents online.
In the viral video, the man confronts a father who left his baby unattended to go get food.
In a now-deleted TikTok video posted by user @dustinshally, the man behind the camera records a baby sitting in his stroller unaccompanied at a table in a mall food court.
“Anyone can just walk away with this baby right now,” the man says.
The table the baby’s stroller is in front of appears to be occupied, as there is food and a drink atop it.
However, there is no adult around.
Eventually, a young man approaches the table with two more drinks.
“And, here he comes,” the man says, assuming he is the baby’s father. He immediately confronts the young father.
“Unbelievable,” he says. “Are you serious?”
“You were gone for three f–king minutes and you just left your kid here.”
The father appears to be confused by the man’s temper as he continues filming.
The man claims that he knows the father was gone for three minutes since he was timing him on his phone.
“You left your kid sitting here by himself. Unacceptable!” the man scolds the father. “Not my kid, but not acceptable.”
Still confused, the father sits across from his baby and proceeds to give him a sip from his drink while the man continues to berate him.
“Do you understand someone could’ve just walked away with your kid?” the man presses. “That three minutes [that the father was gone] I could’ve just taken your kid now and walked away with him and you don’t care?”
The father claims that he wasn’t worried about his baby being taken since the mall had cameras.
“This place has cameras,” the father points out to the man. However, the man still doesn’t agree.
“You think that security is watching your kid right now to make sure I don’t walk away with him? That’s what you think?”
At this point, the father begins ignoring the young man and eats his meal.
“I just hope that you don’t do this every single day,” the man rambles on. “You should’ve brought your kid with you. Unacceptable.”
The video was reposted to Reddit after being deleted on TikTok by the original poster.
Some Reddit users agreed with the man who confronted the father.
“This is America and you do not just leave your baby unsupervised. At all. F–king ever. You don't even leave them in the house by themselves to go to the shops,” one user wrote.
“Just leaving your infant alone in the middle of a mall? Insane,” another user commented.
However, other users pointed out that leaving your child unattended for a few moments in other countries was a normal custom.
“Dude, in Norway we leave our kids outside for like an hour at a time,” one user shared. “It helps normalize noise plus the natural environment of our country. It's also proven to generally be slightly beneficial to the baby to some degree.”
“I spent three months in Germany and used to regularly hang out at a little table in front of a liquor store with my friends drinking beer and chatting. One day a random lady asked me to keep an eye on her baby in a stroller while she was inside,” one user wrote.
"I kept the baby entertained and had fun making it laugh while she shopped. This was something that I would have never experienced in the US.”
Others criticized how the man confronted the father.
They claimed that instead of belittling him for leaving his child unattended, he could’ve used politely provided an important teaching lesson.
“Seems like a great time to sit down and educate a new father calmly and rationally,” one user pointed out. “Or you could film yourself belittling him and take advantage of his obvious embarrassment because you are so right and he is so wrong.”
Others believe that the man was not actually concerned for the child’s safety and instead wanted the opportunity to berate the young father for social media purposes.
“I get it, but I think it's really shitty to record this guy and put him on blast. I wish people would realize the long-term value of a private conversation,” one user commented.
“He could have taught that young man a legitimate life lesson, instead of doing all this sanctimonious nonsense for social media clout.”
“He doesn't give a flying s--t about the child obviously. What he is doing he does for validation on social media,” another user agreed.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.