A woman has called out a momfluencer for allegedly faking a beach day with her child, claiming the outing was staged purely “for views” and that the mother left as soon as she was done filming despite her child’s disappointment.
Netizen Ashley Cast voiced her displeasure on TikTok, describing what she had seen. She said that for a minute, the mom and child actually seemed like they were onto something, making Cast feel guilty that she did not film with her kids more often.
Highlights
- A TikToker claims she witnessed a mother stage an entire beach outing with her daughter for social media content.
- The mother reportedly kicked over a sandcastle, dismissed her daughter's protests, and spent the rest of the outing editing on her phone.
- Viewers slammed the behavior as exploitative.
However, this sentiment was short-lived. It ended when the smartphone video producer kicked over the sand castle, scooped up her tripod, and told her mortified kid, “We’re done.”
The mother kicked over their sandcastle ten seconds after they started building it
Image credits: healthybutno
Cast detailed how the mom and daughter duo wore matching swimsuits for their excursion.
“She pulls out her tripod, sets it up,” along with a parasol and a blanket, and then starts recording as they build a sand castle.
Witnessing this, Cast thought, “I need to be better at this. I need to record more of me and my kids,” and “take more pictures, because a lot of times I forget, or I am not even taking my kids' pictures.”
Image credits: puhimec/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Cast explained that the influencer continued the charade for ten seconds before she looked at the phone and appeared dissatisfied with what she saw.
The mother acted enthusiastic about the beach day, then stopped abruptly when the filming was done, to the dismay of her daughter
Whatever appeared on the phone, presumably an unsatisfactory depiction of her and her daughter’s day at the beach, prompted her to knock over the sandcastle amidst her daughter’s half-hearted protests.
Image credits: Andrii/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
“The kid is also not super frustrated and it looks like this happened before,” Cast speculated.
The two, under the mother’s direction, then restarted the sandcastle project afresh.
For the camera's benefit, the mother said, “Oh, we’re gonna go to the water, we're gonna go swim. This is so fun.” According to the Cast, the child unsuspectingly bought into her mother’s scripted enthusiasm and responded in kind.
The child seemed to have experienced this kind of behavior before
Image credits: healthybutno
Directly after saying this, the mother got up and dismissed her daughter, telling her to “go play” before giving all of her attention to her phone again.
“I was like, oh that’s kind of weird,” Cast recalled herself thinking.
Like the mother promised, the stint in the water materialized, but only with the tripod and phone to witness it.
Much like the first sandcastle stint, the two’s frolicking in the sea lasted no longer than 10 seconds. Once the camera had captured the mother’s staged fun to her satisfaction and her daughter’s unsuspecting and sincere enjoyment, it was over.
The mother then switched her attention to her phone again and brushed her child away
Cast claims that the influencer then grabbed her daughter and her phone and returned to their blanket.
Image credits: travelers_tw/Pexels (Not the actual photo)
Confused, the daughter protested. “But I thought we were gonna go swimming.”
“No, we’re not going swimming,” the mother responded before telling her upset child, “We’re done.”
After their brief stint in the water, Cast recalled the woman being glued to her phone as she supposedly edited the footage, while brushing aside her young ones’ appeals to play with her.
Image credits: irissca/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
When her mom eventually tore her attention from her device, she declared it was time to go and gathered up her umbrella, blanket, tripod, and disgruntled daughter, leaving the beach.
Ashley Cast lamented the fact that the momfluencer was using her child to show off her “fake life”
“That’s literally all you did. You took your daughter to the beach for views,” Cast lashed out at the unnamed mother.
Image credits: irissca/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
“You can have a pretend life, but it is another thing to have a pretend life and use your children for views.”
“If you’re gonna be fake on the internet, do it with adult people. Don’t do it with children,” she appealed to the world at large.
Netizens think that good mothers don’t have the time for photo shoots
Image credits: nicoletaionescu/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Cast’s video, which has since raked in close to 170,000 likes, has netizens trying to guess the identity of the accused mother.
Three names have since been mentioned in the comment thread, with one person appealing to the TikToker:
“Can you make a Video confirming that it was not [redacted],” she asked. “People are attacking her in her video even though you mentioned it was not for her.”
Another netizen looked a little deeper into Cast’s report and offered an analysis, saying—a little bit sarcastically:
“Fun fact: When you’re actually parenting, you rarely have the brain space to set up a camera, and if you’re focused on your kid, you’ll never take the time to stage a shoot.”
Netizens are hoping to find the momfluencer on TikTok
