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A mother has sparked a debate after she gave her other children the opportunity to blow out her daughter’s birthday candles.
Earlier this month, mother of four and vlogger Cecily Bauchmann took to her social media accounts to share a video of her daughter’s 11th birthday. While her video has since been deleted, one TikTok user, @a.shleycollins, has re-shared the footage, which showed the 11-year-old girl blowing out her candles while holding her hand over her younger sister’s mouth.
After the child received a hug from both her parents, the video went on to show that the candles were re-lit for the birthday girl’s siblings. Bauchmann went on to lift her youngest daughter, who blew out the two, colorful number “11” candles.
The mother then lifted her youngest son up so he could blow out the candles, which were once again re-lit. The process continued with Bauchmann’s eldest son smiling and blowing out the candles.
Throughout each candle lighting experience, the birthday girl stood right next to her siblings while wearing a silver “Happy Birthday” headband.
@a.shleycollins’ video then continued with her criticizing Bauchmann, while she also asked her own son how he felt about the situation.
“If you were at someone’s birthday, and they had a cake in front of them with candles, would you want to blow those candles out?” she asked, before he son responded with “No.”
After she asked her son why he isn’t supposed to blow those candles out, he said: “Because it’s their birthday.”
She then expressed how “crazy” it was that Bauchmann re-lit the candles in order to give the birthday girl’s siblings a chance to blow them out.
“That ruins their special day, huh?” the TikTok user asked her son, before he responded: “Yeah.”
The parent continued to question and scrutinize the vlogger in the caption, writing: “Even my six year old understands how it works - why wouldn’t you teach them to respect their siblings’ special moment?”
@a.shleycollins’s video has quickly gone viral, with more than 9.8 million views. In the comments, multiple people also questioned Bauchmann for seemingly taking the attention away from her daughter on her birthday, with some claiming that the 11 year old looked upset when her siblings were blowing out the candles.
“That poor sweet girl smile dropped and I felt so bad,” one wrote, while another added: “Yeah my parents did this, and I hated them for it.”
A third wrote: “That’s so sad watching that mom take away from her day.”
Other viewers shared how they’d discussed the situation with their children, who vocalized how important it is for their friends to have their individual and special moment on their birthdays.
“Exactly!! The horror in my own kids’ faces when I showed them the video! I’m so sorry for the birthday girl,” one comment reads, while another person wrote: “Just asked my four year old if she can blow out someone else’s candles and she said: ‘No, that’s not nice!’”
However, other people came to Bauchmann’s defense, noting that viewers shouldn’t be so quick to critcize the family based on the situation. They also claimed that it was common for other children to blow out candles on their friend’s birthday.
“People judge this whole family from only one event,” one wrote, while another added: “It’s so normal I do this with my kids and they all laugh and clap for each other.”
“We do this for my son all the time, he’s the baby in the family. So not sorry for it!” a third agreed.
The Independent has contacted Bauchmann for comment.
