Smart Dad Brings His Kids’ Temper Tantrums To Screeching Halt By Fooling Them With ‘Game’

Apr 03, 2020 by apost team

There are so many wonderful aspects of being a parent but there are also some less than thrilling ones too. One of those is when children inevitably have temper tantrums. It's something that even the most patient parent has to deal with on a regular basis – the challenge of trying to get your child to stop crying. Young children don't often know any other way to express themselves than by turning on the waterworks to get what they want.

But one father of two young daughters may have found a way to quickly deal with tantrums as they happen and even put a fast end to them. It's something he caught on camera while on a family vacation in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

Jesse Merl is the proud father of two daughters, Genevieve, 3, and Georgia, 1. But one day while on vacation, his wife left to quickly run an errand and as kids are, the girls saw it as a prime moment to have a meltdown.

At first, Genevieve came out of the bathroom clad in a swimsuit with tears streaming down her face. Her young sister Georgia followed closely behind and she was also crying. It seemed they missed their mother terribly and Merl was left to deal with the waterworks.

At that moment, while the pair wailed loudly for their mother, the creative father came up with a smart solution to stop his daughter's crying. He decided to start a fun game with them that he learned a while back while also battling another bout of tears from this troublesome twosome.  

While still filming the girls, the dad asked them if they wanted to take turns crying. Although it took Genevieve a little while to calm down enough to stop crying, Georgia seemed to be on board right away and halted her tears.

The dad let out a pitiful, fake cry of his own, much in the same way his daughters had just done a few moments before. He then told Georgia that it's her turn to cry, but the 1-year-old looked puzzled and said she didn't want to cry anymore. Then it was Genevieve's turn. The 3-year-old let out a heartfelt wail while she also mumbled for her mother at the same time. 

After Genevieve took her turn, the dad repeated the game by fake crying again himself. Georgia again refused to cry and said that she was done then, but still wanted her mother. By the second time around, Genevieve's tears also diminished to practically nothing, although she also asked for her mother once again. Knowing he achieved what he set out to do, the proud dad gave both of his daughters a high-five for stopping the flow of tears. He captioned his video:

"I figured it out with one of my daughters a long time ago. Works every single time.”

In fact, Merl has other videos on his social media accounts that highlight the same technique used on different occasions. It might not be the most conventional way for a parent to deal with a child's temper tantrum but he's certainly proven its efficacy.   

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But while the technique may work, not everyone is satisfied that it's the right approach. In the comments section of one of the videos, people expressed their opinions with some hailing the father as "smart" while others critiqued his parenting style. One woman said:

"Way to mess up your child's self esteem! You need to esteem your kid right now by sitting with them and acknowledging their feelings and make them feel validated and heard, that's when they'll stop crying. This is messed up."

Others agreed with the woman, believing the technique or trick to be potentially damaging to his daughters. But others felt that people were outraged over nothing. Another user wrote:

"Some of these comments. this is exactly why so many kids these days have turned out to be such brats. Allowing your children to throw fits and tantrums without a reason, except when they don’t get their way. This man is smart. great job dad."

Merl has other videos that show the same technique being used on his YouTube channel, Jesse on Fire. In another video, he and his wife both do the trick, and once again, it works instantly. The comments on that video include many people who admitted to using the same technique and thinking they had made it up themselves. Meanwhile, others said that it worked but had an unintended effect. One person wrote:

"My sons just laugh at me when I (tried) pulling that lol."

Whether you choose to use the technique is up to you and your choice of parenting style but from the evidence, it seems that it does actually work. 

What do you think of this dad's unique way of getting his children to stop crying? Do you think it's wise to come up with a fun game like this to distract them, or should you just let them wail until they feel they're done? Let us know what you think and pass this on so others can weigh in too.