- A TikTok was posted by a mom claiming her daughter opened Christmas gifts while she slept.
- The video was viewed over 15.9 millions times and comments discussed the “parenting failure”
- Jessica Ciraulo claimed she was accused by her child of “exploiting” them for political views. She denies this accusation.
In a TikTok video, a mother claims her five-year old daughter opened family presents as they slept on Christmas morning. It’s a heartbreaking TikTok video.
This clip was posted on December 25 and has been viewed over 15.9 million times. The video shows Jessica Ciraulo, 42, from New Jersey, speaking to the camera as she stands in front of a Christmas tree. She says that her daughter “woken up and opened every present in the house”, including those belonging to her sister, my husband, and mine.
Ciraulo was visibly upset and said “You want to talk about a major parenting mistake.” Later, she showed a pile on the ground of paper and boxes that she claimed she found when she woke up.
“It was a magical Christmas morning that I was anticipating.” Ciraulo shared that she spent three hours wrapping the presents. We didn’t have the chance to see her open any presents.
Ciraulo explained to Insider that she posted the video on TikTok because she was annoyed with her daughter for opening gifts without telling her, and added, “I thought other parents would be capable of understanding.”
Cirualo asked in the video caption: “What are you doing wrong that our daughter would think such a thing is okay?” Cirualo asked her, “What are we doing wrong here that our daughter would think this is okay?” She replied that she was open for suggestions.
The video received over 45,000 comments. There was mixed feedback. While some left comforting comments for Ciraulo, others offered advice and suggestions on how to deal with the situation. Others said that it made them hesitate about having children.
This is not a parenting failure. Even if you try, your children’s actions are impossible to control. All that effort will make you a strong momma. Don’t stress about it,” a comment that has been liked more than 24,700 times. “Honestly mama, please sit down and explain to her what happened, why it hurt, and ask why she did it,” one comment that has been liked more than 24,200 times.
One comment, “Everyday this app confirms that I have decided to never have children,” received 13,000 likes.
Ciraulo revealed to Insider that she had received negative comments after the video became viral.
She said that she received private messages on Instagram from people calling her a narcissist because they were exploitation of my children for comments and views.
Ciraulo admitted that children are sometimes included in social media content, but said to Insider that she wasn’t “shaming” her in the video. She also stated that he would never do that privately or publicly. It is not the way we should parent.
Ciraulo stated that her daughter knew she had to wake them up every morning in a follow-up video, which was posted December 26 and received more than 2.5 million views. She claimed they didn’t punish her by taking away all of the toys but did donate some.
Ciraulo stated that her daughter was not “a bad kid”, but she was “lacking impulse control”. She also claimed that Ciraulo believed the “root cause” of Ciraulo’s problem was her daughter spending too much time on her tablet and learning new things there.
Ciraulo explained to Insider that they had taken the tablet from Ciraulo’s daughter on Christmas Day because she was playing five hours per day on average on games.
“It was teaching her to be competitive and materialistic in an unhealthy way,” she said. “She also would watch many YouTube videos of other children playing the same games, and that reinforced those concepts.”
Ciraulo has more than 66,000 subscribers to her TikTok account, where she posts video about motherhood including parenting vlogs and day-in-the life videos.
You can find more stories like these from Insider’s Digital Culture Team here.