Sometimes, desperation leads to ingenuity. A father demonstrated this when he found an unexpected use for his KitchenAid mixer: rocking his newborn baby’s stroller.
In a TikTok posted on Sept. 3, a user known as Sunburnt Dad (@sunburnt_dad) shows off the creative way he rocked his newborn baby to sleep using his KitchenAid mixer.
He set up a small stack of books to act as a ramp and attached a lever to the mixer, clamped onto the stroller’s straps. The video shows the mixer gently rocking the sleeping baby back and forth.
In the video’s overlay, Sunburnt Dad refers to his contraption as “Nap-O-Matic 1.0.” On Monday, his video had 4.6 million views on TikTok.
@sunburnt_dad #newborn #naptime #baby #dadhack #dadhacks #stroller #newbornbaby #kitchenaid #lifehack #lifehacks ♬ original sound – Sunburnt Dad
Many commenters praised Sunburnt Dad for his creativity, with several other first-time parents expressing solidarity.
“The things we will do just to keep them babies asleep,” one commenter wrote.
“Engineering at its finest,” another wrote.
Several commenters expressed concerns over the safety of using the homemade device to rock a baby, going so far as to tag popular TikTok user and mortician Lauren the Mortician (@lovee.miss.lauren).
Lauren is known for her videos responding to other users’ risky behavior, particularly in situations that are potentially dangerous for children and infants.
In a response to the worried commenters, Sunburnt Dad wrote, “Baby is swaddled, on back, in a bassinet, and very closely supervised.” Responding to those tagging Lauren for her input, he wrote, “Why do people think it’s appropriate to tag a mortician on a video of a newborn?”
In a comment, Sunburnt Dad revealed that he had already purchased an electric rocking bassinet and was waiting for it to arrive when he put together his “Nap-O-Matic.”
“Work smarter, not harder,” a commenter wrote.
The Daily Dot reached out to Sunburnt Dad via TikTok and Kitchen Aid via email.
