While trick-or-treating from an unattended candy bowl, a young girl took just a few candies—only to be stopped by someone who appears to be her parent. The parent then proceeds to dump a sizable portion of the bowl into her bag, an act that caused outrage when the Ring doorbell video was posted to TikTok.
The video was shared by user @t4yl0r and by Tuesday had more than 3 million views. The clip starts as a cute, candid moment.
“Did you take everything that was in there?” asks the father.
“I just took a little bit because the trick-or-treaters need some,” she adorably replies.
The father makes his way over to the bowl, moving handful after handful of candy into the girl’s bag.
“Leave some for the trick-or-treaters!” the girl reminds him. In the video, @t4yl0r shares that it was early evening, and there were still people trick-or-treating, justifying the young girl’s concern.
When @t4yl0r reviewed the footage later, she says her family’s reaction was a mix of shock and laughter.
“Our reaction was a mix of, ‘wow, this is hysterical’—but underlying, upsetting due to the fact that the parent and child roles were reversed in this clip caught on our camera,” @t4yl0r told the Daily Dot.
Some commenters echoed this sentiment.
“That poor child trying to adult her father,” one commenter noted.
“I feel like I shouldn’t be as shocked as I am,” expressed another. “It’s like shock, disappointment, then anger.”
Others recounted their own trick-or-treating experiences.
“I remember when my mother taught me if we came upon an empty bowl to put some of my candy I had collected BACK IN for the other kids,” one user recalled. “This is so sad.”
For her part, @t4yl0r says that if the child wanted more candy, the family would have happily provided it.
“We were in the house at the time, and if we saw them we would’ve told the girl to take as much as she wants,” she explains, “but it’s the fact the parent snuck up and decided to argue with his daughter to take it all.”
A few commenters theorized that the father was simply trying to cut down on trick-or-treating time.
“Dude said this is our first and last stop for the night,” one commenter joked.
“He was tryna call it a night!!” another said. “Bucket full, time to go home!!”
While many people had harsh words for the parent, @t4yl0r said that at the end of the day, it’s all in good fun.
“We’re not mad or looking to shame him,” she said. “We just thought it was a silly video to put out on the internet.”
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