"It costs you nothing, and it creates this ripple effect of kindness."
There's an extremely niche but surprisingly popular corner of the Internet devoted to grime and muck being scrubbed away. Yes, really. People find it to oh-so satisfying, and it's known as #CleanTok. It's mostly wholesome, cathartic fun, but every once in a while, controversy comes in. For a mom named Audrey (who clearly has a passion for cleaning hacks, given her TikTok handle of @organizedchaos4), that moment came in October 2024 after she filmed herself doing a deep clean of her then 12-year-old daughter’s room. Several people chimed in to accuse her of spoiling her kid, more or less.
Granted, Audrey admitted that she had posted the video “hoping that the trolls would get those thumbs a-movin’.” So when they did indeed come after her, she was ready. “I surprised my daughter by cleaning her room for her. She's been getting herself up for 6 a.m. practices, she gets herself to school, she's out of the house before the rest of us have even woken up,” Audrey says in the clip.
“Keep in mind she's 12. In return for all that she's been doing, I thought it would be a nice treat if I just did a quick speed clean of her room. It was no big deal.”
Audrey goes on to say that the point of her follow-up video was to reiterate the importance of “extending grace.”
@organizedchaos4 TikTok · Organized Chaos | Audrey
"That's what I did for my daughter. She had fallen behind on her room and I helped her,” she says. “It costs you nothing, and it creates this ripple effect of kindness. We all have setbacks, we all have failures, we all make mistakes and if you say you don't you're lying. By extending grace we are spreading kindness, we are spreading compassion. If you can't extend grace to your own children then there's no way you're going to extend it to anyone else in the world and that's a scary world to live in.”
Audrey then argues that being kind to others often makes it “easier” to be kind to ourselves, which is “vital for our mental health.”
She then concludes, “So if you watched the video yesterday or you're watching this one today and you're thinking negative thoughts, ask yourself, ‘Am I quick to judge, be resentful, be negative or am I quick to extend grace?' or ask yourself, 'Have I ever stumbled and wish grace had been extended to me?’”
Tired tween needing a break sleeps at her desk.Canva Photos
Down in the comments, it's clear Audrey is certainly not alone in her thinking.
“Kindness costs nothing and provides everything,” one person wrote.
“This will only inspire your daughter to keep working hard and give back when she has a chance to, and know she can rely on you when she struggles,” added another.
Several other moms even chimed in about doing something similar for their kids.
“Exactly I did the same thing for my 23-year-old daughter who works full-time and is a full-time college student. She’s 100% independent. I just want to take some off stress off her plate,” one mom shared
Another said, “I do this for my daughter still, and it's her house.”
As with all things in parenting, balance is key. Of course we don’t want to instill laziness, but at the same time, kids can’t be expected to overachieve in all areas at all times. Adults can’t even manage this without a little help. It sounds like this is truly a case of a good kid acting as responsibly as humanly possible, and a mom just wanting to help out where she can, all why'll teaching her the world can be a safe place. Hard to see anything wrong with that!
Cleary, none of the negative comments have dissuaded Audrey from taking care of her daughter this way. In fact, in one video, she mentions that, due to her love language being "acts of service," she actually enjoys doing it.
@organizedchaos4 For everyone in yesterday’s video saying “if she can’t keep it clean she doesn’t deserve it” let’s apply that logic to you, as well. If you’ve ever had a semi-messy home, you don’t deserve it. 😉 See the problem with that logic? We all allow our homes to get messy once in a while. No shame in it. Welcome help if it’s offered. ❤️ We’re all about grace and generational wealth over here. 👏🏻 #cleaning #clean #cleaningmotivation #kids #cleanwithme #organization #organize
And for those of us adults without a parent to help clean, Audrey has some pretty great organizational tips on her TikTok for you to peruse.
This article originally appeared two years ago. It has been updated.
A woman learning how to play guitar.
Learning a new skill, such as playing an instrument, gardening, or picking up a new language, takes a lot of time and practice, whether that means scale training, learning about native plants, or using flashcards to memorize new words. To improve through practice, you have to perform the task repeatedly and receive feedback so you know whether you’re doing it correctly. Is my pitch correct? Did my geraniums bloom? Is my pronunciation understandable?
However, a new study by researchers at the Institute of Neuroscience at the University of Oregon shows that you can speed up these processes by adding a third element to practice and feedback: passive exposure. The good news is that passive exposure requires minimal effort and is enjoyable.
"Active learning of a... task requires both expending effort to perform the task and having access to feedback about task performance," the study authors explained. "Passive exposure to sensory stimuli, on the other hand, is relatively effortless and does not require feedback about performance."
A woman reading a book.via Canva/Photos
How to pick up new skills faster?
So, if you’re learning to play the blues on guitar, listen to plenty of Howlin’ Wolf or Robert Johnson throughout the day. If you’re learning to cook, keep the Food Network on TV in the background to absorb some great culinary advice. Learning to garden? Take the time to notice the flora and fauna in your neighborhood or make frequent trips to your local botanical garden.
If you’re learning a new language, watch plenty of TV and films in the language you are learning. The scientists add that auditory learning is especially helpful, so listen to plenty of audiobooks or podcasts on the subject you’re learning about.
But, of course, you also have to be actively learning the skill as well by practicing your guitar for the recommended hours each day or by taking a class in languages. Passive exposure won't do the work for you, but it's a fantastic way to pick up things more quickly. Further, passive exposure keeps the new skill you're learning top-of-mind, so you're probably more likely to actively practice it.
What is passive exposure?
Researchers discovered the tremendous benefits of passive exposure after studying a group of mice. They trained them to find water by using various sounds to give positive or negative feedback, like playing a game of “hot or cold.” Some mice were passively exposed to these sounds when they weren't looking for water. Those who received this additional passive exposure and those who received active training learned to find the water reward more quickly.
A woman tending to her garden.via Canva/Photos
“Our results suggest that, in mice and in humans, a given performance threshold can be achieved with relatively less effort by combining low-effort passive exposure with active training,” James Murray, a neuroscientist who led the study, told University of Oregon News. “This insight could be helpful for humans learning an instrument or a second language, though more work will be needed to better understand how this applies to more complex tasks and how to optimize training schedules that combine passive exposure with active training.”
The one drawback to this study was that it was conducted on mice, not humans. However, recent studies on humans have found similar results, such as in sports. If you visualize yourself excelling at the sport or mentally rehearse a practice routine, it can positively affect your actual performance. Showing, once again, that when it comes to picking up a new skill, exposure is key.
The great news about the story is that, in addition to giving people a new way to approach learning, it’s an excuse for us to enjoy the things we love even more. If you enjoy listening to blues music so much that you decided to learn for yourself, it’s another reason to make it an even more significant part of your life.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
This article originally appeared last year.
Sounds like somebody is in a food rut
It can be frustrating to be a kid and have very little control over what happens in your life. Case in point: When you're a kid, you rarely have a lot of say in what you get to eat for dinner. The adult in your house is the one who gets to decide, and you have to eat whatever they put on your plate. But one little boy is simply tired of eating chicken, and he doesn't care who knows it. Well, he cares if his mom knows.
In a TikTok video, Lacy Marie shows her son taking out the trash while vehemently venting about having to eat chicken "every day for all of my years."
He rants all the way to the trash can, being sure to get it out of his system before he makes it back into the house. which, you know, kudos to him for healthy emotional processing.
This kid can't stand eating chicken every night
"Chicken. No more chicken. We have chicken every day. Eat this, eat that, eat more chicken, keep eating it," the 10-year-old complains. "It's healthy for you. Like, we get it! We have chicken every day!"
@user484367054 10-year-old caught on doorbell cam venting!! #hilarious #nomorechicken #heworksout
Apparently, the little boy doesn't think eating chicken every day is good for his gains at the gym, as he says he works out. Nor does he care about lean protein, and likely doesn't care about the science behind chicken being a healthy food for muscle development. He. Doesn't. Want. Chicken. And it seems like the commenters under the video are on his side.
"Give that man a steak," one person says in the comments.
"My dad has been married for 25 years, and he's had enough," another jokes.
A young boy eating baked chicken.Photo credit: Canva
"Please order him a pizza," another commenter pleaded.
"When my daughter was 5 yrs. old, 'chicken, chicken, chicken, pretty soon I'm gonna grow feathers!'" another commenter wrote.
"If they serve chicken at his wedding, please play this as part of your speech. 'Every single day of his years?! Really, Mom?' someone laughs.
"I'm thinking you need to give chicken a break. He's been eating it every day of his years," another commenter writes.
Even Sam's Club got in on the jokes, saying, "chickens hearing this," with two eye emojis with an open mouth. Poor little guy, the internet is on your side, maybe you'll get some burgers instead.
After the video went viral, Mom changed her ways
From the looks of it, after going viral, Mom was inspired to whip up some non-poultry fixin's. In a follow-up video, Mom cooks a delicious-looking lasagna that doesn't appear to contain chicken. She also shared a video where her son eats a homemade cheeseburger. And lil' bro does seem to take his daily workouts with his father very, very seriously. Dad is pretty yoked, so he could be the reason why Mom cooks so much chicken.
A roasted chicken.Photo credit: Canva
Children's protein needs vary by age, with a general recommendation being 34 grams of protein per day for kids 9-13 years old. Luckily for parents, there are plenty of protein-rich foods—besides chicken—to keep things interesting.
This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.
Handling a cat may seem like a delicate matter, but being delicate isn't actually the way to go.
If you've ever tried to make a cat do something it doesn't want to do, you've likely experienced the terror that a cat's wrath can invoke. Our cute, cuddly feline friends may be small, but the razor blades on their feet are no joke when they decide to utilize them. Even cats who love us can get spicy if we try to manhandle them, so we can imagine how things will go with cats who don't know us well. But sometimes it's necessary to handle a cat even if it's resistant to the idea.
This is where Vancouver veterinarian Dr. Uri Burstyn comes in. His "How to pick up a cat like a pro" video, in which he demonstrates a few ways of picking up and handling a cat, has been viewed over 23 million times since he shared it in 2019. Unlike many viral videos, it's not humorous and nothing outrageous happens, but the combo of Burstyn's calm demeanor and his repeated instructions to "squish that cat" has endeared him to the masses.
- YouTube www.youtube.com
The video truly is helpful; he shows the ways to pick up a cat that make them feel the most secure using his cats, one-year-old Claudia and 14-year-old Mr. Pirate. He explains that cats spook very easily and it's best to introduce yourself to them gently. Let them sniff your fingers, keeping your fingers curled in, and once they've sniffed you, you can often give them a light rub on the cheek or under the chin.
Picking them up is a different story. The reason many cats will claw or scratch you when you try to pick them up is because they feel unsupported or unsafe, so they'll scramble around trying to get some footing. Burstyn shows how he picks up Claudia with one hand under the chest and one hand under her abdomen. If he needs to carry her around, he squishes her into his body so she feels "nice and supported." He may even put a hand under her front paws.
Cats can be finicky about how they're held. Photo credit: Canva
Then came the best part of the video: "Squish That Cat"
"Now if we do have a cat who's trying to get away from us?" Burstyn said. "We always squish that cat. If you're trying to hold the cat down, whether it's to trim their nails or to give them a pill, or whether you just want to have a cat not run off for a moment, squish that cat. All you need to know about cat restraint is to squish that cat."
Burstyn explains that cats generally feel very secure being squished, even if they're really scared.
"Sometimes cats come to me in the clinic, and they're quite afraid," he said. "And you just gently squish them, and they'll sit there and kind of not hurt themselves, not hurt us. Just hang out and let us do our thing."
He demonstrated putting a towel over the cat, explaining, "If you have a towel handy, this is one of the best cat restraint tools around. You can just throw a towel on the catty and squish her with the towel, that way they won't get a claw into you if they are scrambling about a bit. Very safe and gentle, and generally cats are very, very happy to be squished like that."
Squish that cat. Photo credit: Canva
Dr. Burstyn also showed how to do a "football hold," tucking the cat under your arm with them facing backwards. "So this is kind of an emergency way if you really need to carry a cat somewhere in a hurry," he said. Scooping up Claudia, he explained, "Little head's under your arm, butt in your hand, and you squish her tight to your body. And with that little football carry, you can basically hold a cat very securely and very safely, because it's really hard for them to rake you with their hind legs."
If you're worried about over-squishing your cat, Dr. Burnstyn says don't. "You don't have to worry about hurting a cat," he said. "They're very, very tough little beasts. You know, just squishing them against your body's never going to do them any harm. In fact, they tend to feel more safe and secure when they're being held tightly."
Dr. Burnstyn also demonstrated how to pick up and set down a "shoulder cat" who insists on climbing onto people's shoulders and hanging out there, as Mr. Pirate does. It's highly entertaining, as Mr. Pirate is a big ol' chonky kitty.
@yozron she loves my shoulders i guess #catcore #kittendad #kittensoftiktok #cat #fyp
People in the comments loved Dr. Burnstyn's demonstration, with several dubbing him the Bob Ross of veterinary medicine. Even people who don't have cats said they watched the whole video, and many loved Claudia and Mr. Pirate as well.
"This is just proof that cats are liquid."
"12/10 cat. Excellent squishability."
"So essentially, cats love hugs? That's the most wonderful thing i've heard all day."
"This cat is so well mannered and looks educated."
"Mr Pirate is an absolute unit."
"S q u i s h . T h a t . C a t ."
"I need 'Squish that cat' shirt.
"Dang, that actually helped with my female cat. She has been through at least two owners before me and had some bad expriences which obviously resulted in trust issues. She has now been with me for two years and it had gotten loads better, but she still did not want me to hold her. Normally I simply would have let her be, but for vet visits and such it was not an ideal situation. But then I saw this video and tried to squish the cat. And she loves it! She is turning into quite the snuggly bug. Thank you!"
So there you go. When all else fails, squish that cat and see what happens.
You can follow Dr. Burstyn on YouTube at Helpful Vancouver Vet.
