Photo: @darbyallison19 / TikTok
This can't be appropriate.
By Megan Quinn — Written on Nov 11, 2022
When you ask a five-year-old what they want for their birthday, most of them would probably say a new toy or a trip to get ice cream — you wouldn’t expect them to ask to go to Hooters.
A viral TikTok video is making its way around the internet as parents react to how one mother spent her son's birthday.
A mother on TikTok took her son to Hooters to celebrate his fifth birthday.
In a TikTok video that has been viewed 7.2 million times, Darby Allison (@darbyallison19), shared her son, Zander, celebrating his fifth birthday at Hooters.
Hooters is an American restaurant chain that is named after the slang term for women’s breasts.
Most of the staff working in Hooters restaurants are young women in tight, fitted low cut clothing.
After learning that the young boy is celebrating his fifth birthday, the Hooters waitresses in the video handed him two cone-shaped paper cups and told them to bite down on them, resembling an owl’s beak.
An owl is the chain’s symbol and is featured on the waitresses’ shirts.
They also give Zander two tin dishes and tell him to flap his “wings” while they sing “Happy Birthday” to him.
“Attention, Hooters! This is my best friend, Zander, he’s turning five years old. Can I get a round of applause?” one waitress announces to the restaurant.
As other customers clap and cheer, the waitresses sing “Happy Birthday” to Zander as he happily flaps his “wings.”
His parents can be heard laughing off-camera.
“Shouldn’t have told them it was your birthday, buddy,” the video is captioned.
Other TikTok users slammed the mom for taking five-year-old Zander to Hooters.
Many believed that the establishment was not appropriate to take a young child.
“Who brings a child to Hooters? I’m not American, and I really don’t understand the whole Hooters thing,” one user commented.
“Bro, he’s five. What’s he doing in Hooters? Great mum and dad,” another user wrote.
“So you took him to a ti–ty restaurant? So much for protecting the children,” another user added.
However, some users did not see the harm in taking a child to the restaurant.
“Former hooters girl, this is so cute!!” one user wrote.
“I'm doing the same with my son!! So cute” another user claimed.
“It's still a restaurant/almost sports bar. I've seen plenty of ppl bring their kids there to eat,” another user pointed out.
Whether you agree or disagree, you cannot deny that little Zander appeared to be having a great time ringing in his fifth birthday!
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.