Filling a bathtub with clean water before a hurricane is just common sense. A little preparedness is fine, but at a certain point, it becomes a parody. One Pennsylvania mother and content creator takes disaster response to questionable levels. She makes TikTok videos showing how she essentially preps for everything—from cruise safety to over-the-top hurricane prep—and sometimes involves her son. It’s like the ASMR of doomsday prepping, and she’s not the only one.
It’s okay to teach our children about the reality of how the world works and how to protect ourselves. But when does it become too much? It’s possible that Victoria—victorias.way on TikTok—may take things a little too far with her prepping videos. This mom posts “safety and travel and cruise tips with a fun twist” but nothing about her videos screams ‘fun’ to me.
Instead, they’re stressful recreations of what she does during emergency situations. Is it not enough to show your child how a life jacket works and use it when the time comes? And, as several people in the comments pointed out, “you should NEVER” put a vest on when you’re still in your room. You’ll just be trapped at the top. The crew will notify when it’s necessary, anyway.
Victoria posted a recent video titled, “The first thing I do during a storm on a cruise.” Apparently, Victoria always expects the worst wherever she goes, even if it’s a relaxing cruise (where they have safety measures in place anyway)
In the video, she gets out massive life jackets for her and her son and straps them on. As intense music plays in the background, she hands her son an emergency whistle, and they lie on their beds with their life jackets on. Looks like a ‘fun’ and ‘relaxing’ time.
What this content screams to me is pandering to an audience with a doomsday-is-nigh mentality. Visiting her Linktree is a laundry list of products useful to doomsday preppers, like Apple AirTags and home security tools. Linked to Amazon, no less. “Step 1: Scare the crap out of my kid,” said one commenter, and that sums it up perfectly. Scare kids and anyone who’s susceptible.
Nothing seems more stressful than thinking the worst about everything and then getting on a boat, where you’re stranded in the middle of the ocean. This is high-level anxiety taken to a whole new level, and I’m not here for it.
