This mom is turning her little nugget into a chicken — and it’s rustling some feathers online.
A mother of two named Raquel Tolman is getting deep fried by digital detractors who’ve deemed her “dirty” and “disgusting” for tossing food onto the floor and encouraging her infant son to eat the bites off of the ground like a farm animal.
“Sometimes when I’m sick, I like to feed my baby his little snacks as if he was a chicken,” the mother, from southern Utah, said in her trending TikTok testimonial. “He loves it.”
In the viral video, which has cooked up more than 4.6 million views, Tolman’s baby is seen laying on the floor as she throws a handful of puffed cereal flakes onto the carpet.
Her son then flips over onto his stomach and begins pecking away at the treats while she, in a singsong falsetto, says, “Eat the snacks!”
And the controversial snack time scene has sent angered social media critics clucking.
“I find it humiliating and disgusting,” spat a commentator. “Sick or not, I would never treat my child with such disrespect.”
Another rebuked: “What the … that’s so dirty … I could never do this to a child.”
Others slammed the mom for treating her child like a “dog” or a “pigeon in the park.”
However, a number of TikTok troopers came to Tolman’s defense with many admitting that they, too, feed their kiddies in a petting zoo-like fashion.
“Sitting here with my 8-month-old while the 2-year-old sleeps, and just [tossing] food at her to keep her entertained while I feel like death. Love it,” an ailing mother confessed.
“My son steps on his snack and eats the crumbs from the floor,” said an equally shameless mom.
“Nobody better say it’s bad parenting, this is literally enrichment,” added another parent in support of the display.
One mother even suggested that feeding a baby like a chicken can be beneficial to their overall development.
“I mean, it’s good for his motor skills because of the crawling, fine motor [skills] for him grabbing the little food, I see a lot of good things,” she said.
One commenter dubbed Tolman’s kid the “free range baby” — likening the tot to free-range chickens, which unliked cooped birds, have unbridled access to the outdoors on a farm.
And the unfussy mama gave the nickname her stamp of approval with a “like.”
