TikTok Is Having A Moment With The Milk Crate Challenge, And I Hate It

Having three teenagers on TikTok is a mixture that keeps me on my toes. It’s almost a full time job as their mother to make sure they aren’t getting sucked in and doing something they shouldn’t be doing because they’ve seen it on the damn internet.

While I love TikTok for the recipes, fashion trends, humor, and fucking amazing dollar store finds, there are also things about it that spike my blood pressure.

One thing that comes to mind when teenagers take videos of themselves driving up to a drive-thru window and throwing cold water at the person trying to take their order, or ordering a soda and food and throwing it back at the employees face and driving away laughing.

There is nothing that makes me see red more than people disrespecting others like that to get a laugh or go viral. If it’s trending with the teens, I will never be one of those parents who will rely on thinking my kids are smarter, or above doing some of these things. I’d like to think they are but damn, that’s not enough insurance for me.

They are teenagers who think they are invincible and don’t realize the weight of their choices sometimes. It’s not hard for them to get caught up in something they probably shouldn’t.

This is where the talks happen and my kids roll their eyes so far to the back of their head I’m not sure I’ll ever see the pupils again, but I have to address these disrespectful or dangerous trends with them.

So, when I saw a few videos about the viral milk crate challenge, an absurd game of stacking milk crate to a pyramid shape and try to walk/balance your way up and down the mountain of flimsy plastic without falling and landing on your neck, it’s my duty to tell my kids not to try it, or else.

I don’t know what “or else” means in this case, but I do know we won’t be buying any milk crates.

Since its debut on social media the milk crate challenge hashtag has over 71 million views. People enjoy watching other people fall down which I realize can be funny but, there’s no humor in watching someone get hurt. These self-induced injuries make me want to scream and throw (soft) things at these milk crate climbers because, what the actual fuck.

Find something else to do with your time that won’t land you in the emergency room, or worse.

Dr Karan Rangarajan, a general surgeon based in the UK, told Yahoo! News that “The milk crate challenge […] poses a high risk of exposing yourself to orthopedic injuries as well as injuries to the head and neck as a result of falling from heights onto the ground or the crates themselves which can puncture the skin,” he says.

While some people have completed this without a scratch which is very impressive, it’s not worth the risk.

Hmmm, going viral for walking on milk crates in heels and enjoying a few moments of fame from strangers, or undergoing serious injuries that will lay you up for months or longer, and stretching our hospitals and healthcare workers even thinner than they already are?

Why is this even a question?

Rangarajan also tells Yahoo! News, “Injuries can range from broken bones, ligament injuries and dislocations to potentially life-threatening ones such as spinal cord injuries or intracranial bleeds [which is] a bleed inside the skull.”

I can’t even with this nonsense.

Leave the damn milk crates in the store so college kids and teenagers can use them as makeshift bookshelves like they are meant for.

There is never a right time for a challenge like this if you ask me so, why we are deciding to do it during a healthcare crisis is infuriating.

A message to everyone who has tried this and posted about it: Stop with these stupid challenges and for the love of God, stop filming yourself risking your limbs and brain while doing them. If you want to do something so ignorant, don’t record it and put it out there for the world to see. Remember there are young kids who are watching TikTok who are easily influenced and could get seriously injured.