As Millennials and Gen Zers take on the mantle of parenthood, a new trend is spreading across TikTok showing how they plan to break “unserious” generational curses that seem to universally get passed down in Black households.
The prompt appears to have started by influencer Taylor Drayton on Facebook who asked the question and gave her own reply: “I throw away stained Tupperware & we open up more than 1 box of cereal at a time.”
The funny hypothetical caught fire, with users chiming in with their new school wisdom, which is largely rooted in them gaining upward mobility and now being able to afford the middle class luxuries their parents couldn’t provide.
“The African American urge to save a plastic bag” is real. But we’re fighting back. As one TikToker said, “Ziploc bags, I’m not washing them or saving them. I don’t care if I only put some bread in them. It’s going in the garbage.”
We must have all grown up in the same household, because another TikToker is celebrating opening up multiple boxes of cereal.
“Two different cereals can be open in my house. You gotta go back to the store anyway. Somebody might like Raisin Bran and I like Cinnamon Toast Crunch. That’s my business!” user @rexandmo shared.
And yes, we can be one of our kids’ “little friends.”
In a viral part I of the answer, @rexandmo proclaimed “I am my kids’ lil friend. Best friends…Because when they get older, I want them to tell me everything. We locked in. Ain’t no switching up period.”
The convo has also moved to Twitter, where someone said they’re not “Taking extra napkins, sauces, straws, etc when eating out. See also, not having a junk drawer.”
But some of these curses are too deeply ingrained, as one user knows, chiming in on the replies with, “I took offense at this but also hope my daughter can break the cycle cause I shol can’t.”
Contentious though it may be, one person’s tweet boldly stated, “We use our dishwasher. Repeatedly. We don’t pre-wash dishes. And when it breaks WE REPLACE THE DISHWASHER. Not just gone be holdin dishes like a glorified dish rack.”
The science is actually with using your dishwasher. It saves water, and “[e]xperts will also tell you that you don’t even need to pre-rinse the crusty, sticky residue off your dishes before depositing them in the dishwasher. Just scrape the solid food off. That saves even more water.”
Now we hope all the little black babies go on and prosper with their dishwashered dishes, multiple cereal options, and McDonald’s money!