Life with children can undoubtedly be chaotic. Parents juggle the tasks of feeding, cleaning, and stimulating their toddlers each day, while also tackling the inevitable messes and tantrums. Amidst the chaos, parents often seek to find joy in these moments, occasionally capturing them on video to share with loved ones. Any parent’s social media feed is sure to have more than a couple of videos of their kids saying or doing something adorably funny.
At Smart Parenting, we celebrate these moments and frequently share heartwarming and funny videos, such as a 3-year-old’s tutorial, or these kids who interrupted their dad’s live TV interview, or this girl dad documenting fatherhood. These videos capture genuine and endearing interactions between parents and children, contributing to their widespread popularity online.
However, not all videos or challenges involving young children are harmless, and the “egg crack challenge” is definitely a no-no.
What is the “Egg Crack Challenge”?
The "egg crack challenge" involves a parent and their toddler engaging in cooking activities, all recorded on video. And then the main part of the “prank” is when the parent unexpectedly cracks an egg onto the child’s head instead of the bowl or any other kitchen implement. What comes next is supposedly the “funny” part – the child’s stunned/confused/nervous reaction that sometimes involves crying or laughter or a combination of both. The unpredictability and facial expressions of the child are what seems to be the most entertaining to people.
Why the “Egg Crack Challenge” is not harmless
Before you consider cracking an egg and recording your child's reaction, here are a few reasons why you should not do it:
Children do not process things the way adults do.
Cooking with children is an enjoyable bonding and educational experience. Parents who engage in this activity regularly know that it takes time for kids to grasp the process – from measuring ingredients to mixing and cooking – all using the proper kitchen tools. And then when your child is comfortable with it, you go and break an egg on his head in the middle of cooking. So all his previous learnings from the said activity – that you as his parent is safe and dependable, that cooking is fun, that there’s a proper tool to be used for each task, and that it’s wrong to hit other people with food – all go out the window.
The challenge can confuse your child and even undermine their learning, all for the sake of a few laughs.
You are possibly violating your child’s trust.
Dan Wuori, Ph.D., Senior Director of Early Learning at the Hunt Institute shares his insights on the egg crack challenge and other similar potentially damaging parent “challenges.” On his tweet, he says that trends such as parents pretending to FaceTime with their child’s kinder teacher and asking their child to meet her only to show a scary-looking photo on screen, or parents throwing cheese slices at their toddlers, and yes cracking a raw egg on their child’s forehead, is definitely harmful and displays appalling behavior.
He writes on X (formerly Twitter):
“The years of early childhood are a time during which trust and attachment are (ideally) formed. With love, attention, and responsive caregiving, young children learn that their world is safe. They develop self worth and self esteem. These are prerequisites to both learning and health development.
But the key to developing trust is consistency.”
For Wuori, these video challenges, even if rarely done, serve to “undermine the healthy attachment between parent and child.” It shows the child that their parents can be unexpectedly and indiscriminately cruel. And this in itself is a violation of hard earned trust.
I want to talk about trust and attachment in young children. And there’s no video here for good reason.
— Dan Wuori (@DanWuori) August 18, 2023
Several of you have recently tagged me to ask my thoughts on trending videos depicting parents engaging in one appalling behavior or another - in pursuit, apparently, of…
You are bullying your child and you are teaching him that bullying is OK.
Pediatric occupational therapist Amanda Mathers shared a TikTok explaining why the trend is not a good idea. She says:
“You are teaching them that hitting someone in the head, hard, with an object, is acceptable and funny.”
@yourpediatricot I know as parents you never want to harm your child. This post is meant to educate, for wny parwnts who were wanting to try this, or tor parents who already did this rrend and fan go back wnd have a conversation with their child about what happened. ••• Toddlers brains at this age don’t yet fully comprehend jokes like this and although they may laugh… their brain is thinking “WHAT THE HECK?!” ••• Skip this trend parents, it’ll save you in the long run ???? #eggcrackchallenge #eggcrackprank #eggcrackreaction #emotionalintelligence #raisingconfidentchildren #raisingkids #donttrythisathome #pediatricot ? Gentle and warm background piano(1262846) - Noru
She considers this as bullying since the videos feature the child crying in embarrassment, pain, or confusion, while the parents laugh in their faces. Simultaneously, others point out that children might believe that "pranking" others, playing jokes that could be physically harmful, is acceptable. However, the reality is that this is cruel, and we certainly do not want to raise cruel kids.
Cracking an egg on your head hurts. Period.
Doing it to an innocent toddler whom you should protect and nurture is undeniably hurtful.Ms. Rachel sums it up best:
Some individuals might dismiss such videos as jokes or fun, or they may not realize the true harm of certain challenges. If you are contemplating engaging in such challenges with your children, please pause for a moment and reflect. Attempt to view it from your child’s perspective – how would you feel if someone cracked an egg on your forehead while cooking and captured it on video? Refrain from intentionally causing trauma or physical harm to your child, no matter how seemingly minor. Lastly, avoid seeking an emotional reaction from a child purely to gain social media attention. Instead, capture your kids in their natural, adorable, and humorous moments. Trust us, they are thoroughly entertaining on their own.
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