Hilarious TikTok nails everything that goes into parenting through ‘puking season’
“Mom, my tummy really hurts.” If this line doesn’t bring chills down your spine, a racing heartbeat, or the need to pop a Xanax, you’re not a parent. Stomach flu season is upon us, and mom and influencer Emily (@thevondyfam) shared a parody of what happens when the stomach flu hits your house. As a parent, I have never felt more seen (and nauseous) by association while watching a TikTok.
Emily captioned the video, “No one moves faster than a parent trying to catch throwup.” And boy is she right about that. I’m sure we’ve all instinctively reached our hands out to catch our toddlers barf before, and it ended as well as you can imagine. Or maybe that’s just my husband who did that—once. Once was all it took. Our son (now 5) still never lets us live this down, as he reminds my husband weekly, “Remember that time you caught my throw-up in your hands? That was so cool!”
The video begins with “The Final Countdown” song playing ominously in the background, and Emily and her husband looking at each other in horror when the text-over says, “When your child says their tummy hurts and it’s puking season.” Emily immediately leaps up from the couch, grabs the sick bowl, launches said sick bowl at her husband, and then throws all the towels onto the couch.
Her husband grabs some sort of cleaner and spins it like he has a weapon, as she grabs Lysol and paper towels. They then do an incredible move of tossing the items to the other as they pass by. With Lysol back in hand, Emily covers her mouth as she sprays the mess out of her living room, trying not to barf herself.
While her husband attempts to rest on the couch, he notices the child needing the sick bowl off camera, and he launches it forward—with his entire body. Next, Emily is seen flying through the air with the bowl extended like a superhero. Finally, in an incredible feat of dexterity and mom superhuman strength, Emily does an incredible roll with the bowl around her arms and tosses the bowl.
The video received rave reviews and tons of “been there” commentary. Fans of the video also offered some helpful tips and tricks for dealing with the dreaded stomach bug.
One viewer mentioned putting glow sticks in the bottom of the garbage can before placing the plastic grocery bags in there so the kid could see where to aim the puke in the middle of the night. Another said to double-make the beds “lasagna style” with a mattress protector, sheet, another mattress protector and another sheet.
Another suggested buying the hospital-style “emesis” bags on amazon in bulk so you can keep them everywhere. And you don’t have to clean the sick bowl constantly, or live in the bathroom. Several parents responded to this comment saying they keep them all over their house in every room, and one said they have a third-row SUV and she has two in each row and some in the glovebox. “Somebody asked me one day if one of my kids has car sickness,” she said. She responded, “Nope! We just have stomach PTSD.”
Whichever method of dealing with the horrors of a stomach bug in the house you choose, we can all agree on how much it totally sucks.
