Child wiping their hands on wedding dress sparks debate in viral TikTok

If it’s white, it might as well be a napkin, right?

A viral video of a child using a bride’s gown as a napkin prompted immediate debate over whether children should be invited to weddings.

In her 24 July TikTok, Kristen (@thefoxsaystwins) exposed her daughter smearing her face into the bride’s white dress at a wedding. “When you can’t find a napkin, so you use the bride’s dress,” the mother of two wrote. The bride seemed to laugh off the little girl rubbing her face in the skirt of her dress, throwing her hands up in the air.

Moments later, a woman appeared in the frame, gently tapping the child to stop. She flashed the bride a smile before pulling the little girl away. Kristen’s caption read: “Do not recommend serving ketchup with the chicken nuggets and fries for the kiddie meal… or just don’t invite kids.”

While the two adults in the video found the child’s actions amusing, an overwhelming number of commenters used it as their argument for why children should not be allowed at weddings.

“No kids at my wedding,” one viewer said, while another agreed: “This. This right here is reason #43 of why you should have a child-free wedding.”

A few individuals complimented the bride on her calm, cool, and collected manner, noting that they wouldn’t be okay if a child did that to their gown.

“My anger issues could never. Love the bride, she’s so nice. Mom gotta do better,” one woman said.

Another critic remarked: “Kids do understand right from wrong this is definitely on the parents.”

Kristen responded: “Yea, two year olds know exactly what’s ok and what is not.”

Though the majority of commenters felt the video supported their child-free wedding movement, one follower disagreed. The TikTok user argued that having children at any function was “the best part” and that she didn’t understand why anyone would want to “exclude” them.

In a 25 July post, Kristen revealed that the video was taken at the rehearsal dinner, not the wedding reception. “Y’all are freaking out about our video with the bride and groom so we’re gonna tell you the real side of the story,” she proclaimed.

The influencer mom followed her children around during their aunt and uncle’s wedding weekend, which didn’t include the reception. As it turns out, the two kids were left with a babysitter the following night.

Written as if the children were speaking, Kristen’s caption said: “When it was actually time for the wedding, mom had the audacity to tell us we had to stay with the babysitter in the hotel room and we weren’t invited. Rude.”

Kristen’s viral video is just one of many TikToks that have resulted in a public stir over wedding drama. Recently, a father prompted internet outrage when he called his son “spoiled” for hosting a wedding that cost over $7,000.

The Independent has reached out to Kristen for comment.