A family has gone viral for the unique—and effective—way a mom distracted her baby from a brewing tantrum.
Keri Hardman lives in the United States with her husband and two young children, Liam and Lucas, who she told Newsweek were “gifted from God” after she and her partner “struggled to have them.”
The family is devout in their faith, and as Hardman told Newsweek, “God is the source to how I parent, how I wife, and how I choose to present myself to others.”
Hardman’s approach to parenting has now seen the family go massively viral, after a video of her distracting Lucas as he began to cry has been viewed a whopping 19.2 million times.
“My youngest son responds to music,” Hardman, who has a degree in psychology, said. “It’s how I teach him everything and he catches on extremely fast.
“It’s also how I help him regulate his emotions. He’s getting to the age now where tantrums are starting—and based off his emotional cue on that day, counting was the course of action.”
Posted to the family’s account @thehardmanway on April 22, mom Hardman stands beside her 11-month-old son, who is sitting in a toy car walker, and lets out a cry that looks ready to become a full-blown tantrum.
But before he can get going, Hardman stamps her foot, claps her hand, and begins half-singing, half-chanting, and counts to 13.
Lucas stops dead, first staring at his mom as she spins, claps her hands, stamps her feet, counts and repeats the numbers, and the baby boy then stares into space quietly, as though processing everything she’s doing.
It’s not just Hardman’s son who was enamored by her chanting and stomping, as TikTok users flocked to the video, awarding it more than 3.4 million likes, as one commenter joked: “Can’t wait for 14 to 26 to be released.”
“This is catchy as hell,” another agreed, as one said: “this song’s a bop not gonna lie,” and another added: “Can you put this on Spotify?”
And as one user declared: “Made me stop crying too, thank you.”
Hardman told Newsweek that she can tell the “course of action” to calm her son “based off his emotional cue,” and “it always works.”
“I don’t always use the same number song, I sometimes switch up the rhythm because like I said previously, he learns fast and once he learns something he likes to move on,” she said.
Toddlers commonly use tantrums to express frustration, and while they can’t be avoided completely, parents can encourage good behavior by praising good behavior and avoiding situations likely to trigger tantrums, such as avoiding areas in a store where they might beg for candy or toys.
The best way to respond to a tantrum is to remain calm, and attempt to distract the child, such as with a change of location or even making a funny face, according to the Mayo Clinic.
Hardman confirmed her counting to 13 distraction song is an original, but said she had a little help coming up with it: “God gave me many talents and instead of sitting on them I use them. He gave me the song and beat, and I immediately used it.”
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