Mom Says 5-Year-Old Opened All Christmas Gifts While Everyone Slept — She's Wondering If She Should Punish Her
The mom is severely upset.
jessicaciraulo/ TikTok.com Watching your children open up the Christmas gifts is arguably the most rewarding part of all the holiday madness.
But one mother’s morning was ruined when that moment was stolen from her by her own daughter.
A mom says her 5-year-old opened all the Christmas gifts while everyone was asleep.
In a video posted on TikTok, Jessica Ciraulo (@jessicaciraulo) begged the platform for help.
“Please be kind, but open to suggestions,” she wrote in the caption. “What are we doing wrong here that our daughter would think this is okay?”
The video opens with Ciraulo on camera, crying as she explains the situation.
“You want to talk about a major parenting fail? My daughter who is 5 woke up and opened every single present in the house without waking us up,” she says.
The camera pans over to show the madness behind her; wrapping paper thrown around the place and boxes ripped open with the items within the box also thrown around the room.
“She doesn’t even appreciate it,” Ciraulo says between sobs.
“I was so looking forward to like a magical Christmas morning. I spent three hours wrapping these presents and we didn’t get to watch or open a single Christmas present.”
Ciraulo made a follow-up video explaining the situation further.
Following the incident, Ciraulo gave some more insight as to what happened and the punishment that would ensue.
“She did know that she was supposed to wake us up in the morning,” she explains. “We had talked about it the night before. No, she’s not on the spectrum — I’m not really sure why that matters. That being said, she’s not a bad kid; she lacks impulse control and she made a bad decision.”
As for the punishment, Ciraulo explains how she and her husband didn’t take away the daughter’s toys but they’re going to donate some of them while she’s allowed to keep “some of them.”
According to Ciraulo, her daughter “is fine with it.”
The comments are slamming the mother for not properly reprimanding her daughter.
The users below the video are upset about the “injustice” the parents are apparently dishing out for their daughter.
“Was there any justice for the sister? Her whole Christmas was ruined too,” one user commented.
“Opening one present is lacking impulse control. Opening everyone takes time and was intentional,” another user commented.
Others offered up some advice on how to better reprimand their daughter.
“An example of natural consequences here would be that she would need to re-wrap all the gifts (gift bags work) so you can do Christmas morning again.”
“Personally, I would have her heavily participate in picking out gifts for family/friends birthdays and holidays, this will show her that giving gifts is also enjoyable rather than only receiving.”
While it’s important to teach your children the importance it is to be grateful around the holidays, it seems a little absurd to expect your 5-year-old child to wake up every single person in the household on Christmas morning.
If anything, the mother should’ve expected something like this would happen — despite how unfortunate it is.
Victoria Soliz is a writer with YourTango who covers news and entertainment content. Her work explores pop culture trends, film and TV, and celebrity news