A mom from Arkansas has sparked debate online after posting a video explaining why toddlers often don’t listen—and, according to her, parents are to blame.
Caylen Mathis (@caylen.alex), a mom of twin toddlers, warned viewers that what she was about to say may ruffle some feathers. “The reason your toddler doesn’t listen to you is because you literally just let them not listen to you—until you lose your s***,” Mathis said in her clip.
Mathis then described a scenario involving her daughter, who had developed a habit of dumping her food on the floor and throwing her plate when finished.
Mathis explained how she won’t tell her toddler more than once to pick up the food. “If she doesn’t respond, I get up, take her hand and walk her through the cleanup,” she said.
“I learned most of my parenting stuff from other creators on TikTok; I’ve always wanted kids, so I always found this stuff interesting,” Mathis told Newsweek.
The message that she emphasized throughout the video was consistency—not in yelling, but in calmly following through.
“Don’t say anything if you’re not gonna [sic] do anything,” Mathis said. “You’re teaching your kids they don’t have to listen, because you’ll say it 10 times, then give in or do it yourself.”
Her approach aligns with certain tenets of authoritative parenting, though she firmly distances herself from the idea that discipline has to involve yelling or punishment.
“Your kids are allowed to cry; your kids are allowed to be mad,” she said, adding that, when her toddlers throw tantrums, she acknowledges their feelings but doesn’t give in. “You can say, ‘I’m sorry you’re mad about that.’ And leave it at that.”
The video, which has amassed more than 5.2 million views, quickly sparked debate among viewers.
Some argued that this is standard gentle parenting, while others believed that parents are too lazy to follow through with demands.
“You legit have to teach your kids, you can’t just expect them to do stuff,” one user commented.
“They all listen when they’re 1-2, then they stop,” another posted.
A day care teacher commented that they can “definitely tell” the difference between the kids who understand the word “no” and those whose parents follow through with their demands.
“It’s because parents are lazy and don’t wanna show them we will do it even if they decide not to,” one comment read.
Mathis told Newsweek the response wasn’t entirely out of the blue. “I wasn’t expecting my video to blow up at all, but the reaction is about what I expected—half of the people agreeing with me, and the others saying it doesn’t work.”
She added that some of the comments have taken a toll: “The comments and some of the backlash stresses me out, so, in all honesty, I’ve not been reading the comments or watching the stitched videos,” she said.
The post Mom on Why Kids Don’t Listen to Their Parents Sparks Debate appeared first on Newsweek.
