Parents will know how rare uninterrupted mealtimes are, but one Southern California mom has a clever hack up her sleeve to help them spend more time enjoying their food.
Jasmine Kim, 30, revealed her secret hack on TikTok, which involves letting her toddler peel a hard-boiled egg at mealtimes so she can get the luxury of 10 to 15 minutes of uninterrupted eating time while her daughter is occupied.
Kim told Newsweek that she got into the habit of batch-making hard-boiled eggs as an easy protein option for her daughter, Olive, when she was around 2.
“One day, I packed it with me as we were running out the door for breakfast. I usually peel the whole thing for her but in the rush, I just grabbed the egg and took it with me to the restaurant.
“She wanted to peel it once we were at the restaurant and that’s when the lightbulb lit up in my head. Now I almost always pack one when we go out to eat!” she said.
The trick? The process of peeling the egg keeps her little one engaged long enough for Kim to enjoy her meal without interruption—something she’s come to appreciate as a mom.
“Not having to scarf down a meal or even having 10 minutes to sip on your coffee while it’s still warm is such a luxury in motherhood; I wish I never took it for granted before,” she told Newsweek.
Kim’s clip clocked up over three million views on TikTok, as well as thousands of comments from fellow parents who agreed that this hack was beneficial for the toddler’s fine motor skills.
While some were taking notes, others commented that their child would lose patience with the task and give up. “Mine would yell help me,” one user wrote, and another commented, “My daughter will make her daddy peel it. I get no peace.”
One user shared their grandmother used to make them hardboiled eggs when she was babysitting: “She’d make me peel all of ’em, wait a minute.”
Kim told Newsweek that the online reaction has been mixed: “Some parents think I’m the smartest mom in the world and other parents say this would last them five seconds before their toddler ended up eating the shells, crying because they got frustrated of peeling or even throwing the egg on the floor,” she said.
Every toddler is different, but for Kim, this hack works a charm.
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