The world of “sharenting” is a minefield. Everyone has a different opinion on posting kids online. But there’s a world of difference between debating posting your own kid and what this one woman on Reddit did: she posted her new boyfriend’s toddler on her public TikTok, and she genuinely cannot understand why he’s mad.
Our narrator is a 32-year-old woman who has been dating “Hiro,” a 27-year-old man, for… wait for it… two months. She notes that she knows him well because his sister is her best friend, which she seems to think is a substitute for actually building a long-term, trusting relationship with him. Hiro has a barely two-year-old daughter.
So, the new couple is at a family swim party. Hiro is swimming with his baby girl, and she admits it was “really cute.” His mom was taking pictures, and she started recording a video. All good so far. She sent the video to the family. Still fine.
And then, she posted it. On her public TikTok. And her Instagram.
The next morning, the video had a couple hundred likes. And why, you might ask, did she post this video of a child that is not hers, from a relationship that is eight weeks old? In her own words, “He’s hot, his baby is absolutely adorable, and it was a cute video so people liked it.”
I just… I cannot. My skin is crawling. “He’s hot.” She used her new boyfriend and his toddler as content to farm likes on the internet. She then, all proud of herself, shared the link to the video with him.
And Hiro, like any sane and responsible parent in the 21st century, “flew off the handle.” He was, understandably, furious. He demanded she delete the video, and his reasoning was simple, clear, and 100 percent non-negotiable: “he just wasn’t comfortable with videos of his baby on the internet.”
This is a complete, fair, and final sentence. It requires no further explanation. But our narrator? She “didn’t understand the big deal.” They argued via text, and now he’s not responding. And she is just… baffled.
Her “friends” are telling her he “overreacted.” Her best friend, the guy’s sister, is defending him but saying he’s “being kind of whiny about it.” Let’s be clear: “Whiny” is not the word. “Parental” is the word. “Protective” is the word. “Justifiably enraged” is the phrase.
This is the part that truly sends me. She ends her post with this: “It’s just privated right now but I will delete it if it’s really a problem.” If? IF it’s really a problem? The child’s father just told you it’s a massive problem! He’s not responding to you! What more confirmation do you need?
Let’s be absolutely crystal clear. You do not, under any circumstances, post a video of someone else’s minor child on your public social media without their explicit, enthusiastic consent. You especially do not do it when you’ve been dating the parent for the length of a CVS receipt.
This isn’t about a “cute video.” This is about consent, privacy, and respecting a parent’s boundaries. She didn’t just cross a line; she nuked it from orbit because “he’s hot.”
So, is she the ahole? She is the biggest ahole in the entire digital sphere. She didn’t just show him that she has no respect for his boundaries; she showed him she has no respect for his child’s privacy and is willing to use his family for clout. This is a red flag so big it could be a national banner.
He told you he didn’t like it. Period.
however, I don’t agree that no child should be on a video without the parent’s permission. If CBS News takesvideo of the crowds gathers for the Macys Thanksgiving Day parade and children are in it, or taking video of Santa in the mall with kids on his lap and these are featured on the evening news…. Those don’t need parental approval. There is no expectation of privacy in public. You don’t want your kids videoed? Stay home.