A Stranger Used His Dad Voice On A Kid At Sam’s Club & Yes, More Of This Please

Every parent has a war story involving them and their kid, stuck somewhere like a grocery store checkout line, while said child absolutely loses their mind about something and is acting an absolute fool. We’ve all been there. This usually happens when you’re alone, too — no backup in sight. Well, one recent TikTok of a dad supporting a parent in distress from a distance suggests we may have more helpers around us than we think.

TikTok user @sarahelizabethmoreno posted a video of her partner sitting across from her in the food court of a Sam’s Club. The text over her video makes clear that while the couple ate, they could see a mom nearby struggling to get her kids to listen. So, from their table, her partner cut the child a classic dad-on-the-edge look and mouthed, “Sit down now. I’m not playing with you, sit your ass down. What’d your mama say? Sit down.” In her caption, she wrote that he later said it takes a village, and we couldn’t agree more.

People flooded the comments with their own stories of helping or being helped by strangers in stores. “As a cashier, if a parent is overwhelmed, I always tell the kids they gotta stay and work if they don’t listen to their parents. I tell them I got trapped here when I was a kid and haven’t been able to escape,” wrote one. “No bc a lady did this to my toddler who was throwing a tantrum and said ‘stand up and act right! Listen to your mama!’ And he stood up so dang fast, I was so grateful lol,” said another.

Sometimes a little help from a stranger can even create lasting change, according to one commenter: “I was at the Target check out, and my kid was absolutely losing all his shit. This man says, "You need a dad voice?" I agreed. He said, "HEY, THAT'S ENOUGH. YOU NEED TO BEHAVE YOURSELF AND LISTEN TO MAMA!" That child looked like he met Jesus. He was good the rest of the day. The next time I went to Target he had his little head on a swivel, and I realized he was looking for that man. He's never thrown a fit in the store since.”

Of course, not everyone would want a stranger stepping in to correct their kids. But as for the moms in the comments, they’re all for it.

• “If someone yelled at my kids to sit down after I’ve yelled and they didn’t listen, I’d invite them to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Veterans Day...”
• “As a mom, pls and thank you bc sometimes I swear the embarrassment of being called out by a stranger snaps them right out of it and for a good min too.”
• “And then tomorrow imma say, ‘you better listen or that man from Costco is gonna come.’”
• “As a single mom, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IF YOU SEE US DROWNING THEN HELP US!!!”

Personally, I absolutely adore this kind of community among parents. When we’re constantly being shamed for our kids just existing in public places (god forbid we try to put them on an airplane), looking at our phones, and bringing them with us to hang with friends, it’s nice to see someone actually lending a mom a hand instead of giving her side-eye. We salute you, Sam’s Club dad!