Do these kids know that sharing is caring? The viral challenge seeks to find out.
When Alissa Torrez, 24, saw TikTok videos of parents doing the viral “cookie challenge” with their toddlers, she immediately wanted to hop on the trend with her 3-year-old son, Oliver.
In these lighthearted videos, parents test their children’s sharing skills through a simple exercise that goes something like this: They sit on either side of their toddler and present three covered plates, each with a “surprise.” (Hint: It’s cookies.)
On the count of three, each person reveals what’s on their plate. One parent has a single cookie, the child has two and the other parent has nothing. The adults then wait to see if their child decides to give their extra cookie to the parent without one, who often pouts or sighs to express disappointment and nudge them in the right direction.
“I was thinking to myself ‘Oh, I have to do this with Oliver because he’s such an empathetic little kid,’” Ms. Torrez said, adding that “I was just like, ‘I’m sure he’s going to do something really sweet.’”
And, indeed, Oliver gasped once he realized there was no M&M cookie under his mother’s paper towel and immediately came to the rescue.
“Hey, it’s OK!” Oliver said in the video, which now has more than 48 million views. He quickly gave his second cookie to his mother, and covered up each cookie with a paper towel so that everyone could experience the grand reveal.