A mum has gone viral by sharing a clever trick for getting children to eat healthy, homemade meals – by packaging them in takeaway containers.
In a video that garnered 2.8 million views, Alex MacLaren chronicled the attempt at duping her kids into thinking they were being treated to a restaurant dinner.
The mum-of-three, whose children are aged three, six and seven, unpacked a bag filled with plastic and tin foil containers of food – pretending they were fresh from a local Italian eatery.
READ MORE: Thrifty Brit creates slap-up M&S chicken dinner for two for just £1.89
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Incredibly, the ruse worked – with the children happily eating and not cottoning on that it had been made at home.
“They didn’t realise it wasn’t real takeout!” the content creator from Halifax, Canada, told What’s The Jam.
In the video, the thrifty mum can be seen unloading several containers of food, including a tortellini minestrone soup and a chicken cacciatore dish with rice.
Alex can be heard announcing to her children: “We ordered in food!
“They sent us a lot of food, you guys.”
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She shows off the meal options – which she actually cooked form home in their kitchen, unbeknownst to her children.
She then dishes out the food, with her children audibly excited in the background.
As the ruse proves successful, Alex winks at the camera.
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The clip garnered 180,000 likes on TikTok, with one user commenting: “I fear this would work on me as an adult.”
“Every day a mum on here proves the point that with kids, it’s all about marketing and packaging,” another user quipped.
Someone else added: “It’s all about the re-brand.”
Someone else dubbed it the “mom hack of the year”.
“Mommy marketing wins again,” another person said.
“This would work on my husband,” one viewer wrote.
Another person commented: “You should write a book this is literally genius.”
