If you have regularly driven a car with a baby, you have probably driven with a screaming baby before.
At the risk of making a generalization: babies hate car rides.
They hate being upside down, they hate not being able to see their mommy or daddy, and they let you know by screaming so loudly and persistently that it puts you in danger of getting into a car accident.
Ask me how I know that.
If your baby is a magical baby who loves car rides or is a light sleeper, no one wants to hear from you.
Tick Tock
Just kidding. Well done and please share your magic.
My kids have now outgrown car rides, but I wish I’d known back then what mom Jacquie Ciccone recently discovered: a trick to make sure her baby is happy in the back seat of the car.
The magic? A photo by Jacquie.
Tick Tock
“When your baby hates the car but loves your face,” Jacquie captioned the viral TikTok, which has garnered nearly 12 million views and over 2 million likes.
Mom’s trick to stop the baby from crying in the car
The video starts with Jacquie’s sweet baby strapped into his rear-facing car seat. The baby doesn’t look very happy. Loud white noise can be heard in the background.
The camera pans to the seat back opposite the baby.
An A4 colour print of Jacquie’s smiling face is attached to the fabric.
Then the camera returns to the baby, who is now beaming from ear to ear and has his eyes almost closed. He is gurgling happily.
His followers were obsessed with this trick and believed it was the only way to deal with a “Velcro baby,” that is, a child that clings to its mother.
“Awesome. I have a baby with velcro so I’m going to make this,” one person said.
“You’re standing right there but she’s still giggling at the picture. BEYOND cute,” another person said.
Others regretted not having learned about the hack sooner.
“Where were all these brilliant ideas when mine was screaming like crazy in the car?” said one person.
“I wish I had thought of that,” said another. “So many screaming car rides.” A nanny joined in the comments, saying she used a similar trick on the children she looked after.
“I’m a nanny and I take the baby to his family photo wall so he can see mommy when he’s sad,” she said. “It also works when he’s lying on his stomach.”
A knowledgeable mother understood what Jacquie had been through.
“The white noise, the image, girl, I know you struggle with these car rides,” she said.
