A 28-year-old mother and social media influencer has fiercely defended herself after a viral TikTok video, viewed over four million times, led to accusations she 'abandoned' her sleeping baby on a beach.
The Viral Clip That Caused a Storm
Renee, a Brisbane-based content creator who shares her life as a 'boy mum' to two children, participated in a popular online trend. The trend involves setting a phone to record, leaving the frame, and asking viewers to 'keep an eye' on something, like a pet, in jest.
In her version, the clip showed her apparently walking away from her 10-month-old son, who was sleeping on a towel in the shade, to go for a swim in the sea. The brief video, lasting only seconds, quickly ignited a firestorm of concern and anger among viewers.
"He Was Never Alone": The Mother's Defence
Facing a deluge of critical comments branding her actions 'horrible', Renee swiftly clarified the situation. She stressed the video was intended as light-hearted fun and that her child was under constant supervision.
"As a mum, I am constantly risk assessing and taking in our surroundings," explained Renee, who is also a registered nurse. She revealed that on the same beach the day before, she had met another parent and their family.
For the video, she had arranged for that other mother to watch her son. "I felt very comfortable leaving him there with not only [the other mum] watching him, but also me and my partner watching from the water," she said. "In the video, we may look far away, however, it was only about 10 metres."
She added that her baby only remained asleep for about four minutes before waking up, and asserted there "was never any risk that anyone would kidnap him."
A Divided Reaction and a Lesson in Context
The video's comment section became a battleground for modern parenting debates. Many were unequivocal in their condemnation.
- "This has to be a joke right?" one user asked.
- "Do not ever do this again," another viewer demanded.
- A third commented on the state of the world: "I would've never let my child there."
However, others recognised the humour and criticised what they saw as overreactions. "People really believe the baby is really alone," one supporter quipped. Another defended Renee's right to a brief swim, stating: "You're not just a mother, you're also a person."
Renee was forced to edit her video caption to assure worried followers that "he is being watched," pleading with them to "please just take it as a joke." She reflected on her own parenting journey, noting: "I would have never done this with my first baby but second time around I’m doing things different."
The incident highlights the perils of viral content stripped of context. "Some people lack critical thinking," Renee concluded. "They watch a 20-second video and comment quite horrible things with no context, which is very strange to me."
