I sometimes marvel at what parents will put their children through, happily uploading that footage to social media for the world to see.

Every so often, I see someone forcing their kid to eat a certain type of breakfast cereal, or a new school snack, before talking to the camera about how yummy it is.

In other words, parents in South Africa are selling their kids down the river to score some freebies.

But you do you, mom, I’m sure your kids won’t harbour any lingering resentment about their commodification down the line.

Then there’s a new viral craze called the Cheese Challenge, started last week by Michigan dad Charles Amara, which has parents divided. Amara posted a video, captioned, “You asked for it, here it is! Attack of the cheese Episode 2. He wasn’t happy after this one”.

He has since deleted the video, saying it was “very invasive for the family”, but the wheels had been set in motion.

Below is one of the more popular videos, showing some cheese to the face:

It gets better every time I watch it pic.twitter.com/QPRN42x8Xo

— AC (@annaclairerusso) March 1, 2019

There are now thousands of videos online, a popular #CheeseChallenge hashtag, and some YouTube compilations:

I know you used to walk miles to school, barefoot across hot coals, with regular floggings dished out as discipline, and that turned you into the wonderful human that you are today, but there’s something about this that just doesn’t sit well with me.

Your baby, your rules, but Twitter ‘momfluencer’ Chrissy Teigen shares that sentiment:

If you can throw cheese in a baby’s face, I can use the term ‘momfluencer’. Children need to have their hopes and trust shattered at some point, but I dunno if it should come in the form of dairy to the face.

YouTube star Casey Neistat is also not a fan:

Over time, this challenge will peter out, like the ‘Kiki Challenge‘ and the ‘Charcoal Challenge‘, but the videos will remain online.

Still, I would take a ‘cheese in the face’ video over using your kids to plug some brekkie in order to score a hamper any day.

[source:eater]