A family YouTuber has faced backlash after uploading a TikTok video where she encourages her sons to pretend they have a dead brother.
In the since-deleted video, Brittany Jade Szabo and her husband, Wyland, staged a prank where they tell their twin sons they actually had a twin who died. The prank, which was broadcast to Szabo's 2.2 million TikTok followers, appeared to be done in an effort to win a free cruise with Royal Caribbean.
However, the prank seems to be part of a wider TikTok trend where parents tell a lie to the camera with their children in the background, and see whether they will go along with it - usually these videos use a text overlay which reads "seeing if my kids go along with my lies."
Some examples have included one mother who tells the camera she wants to win a competition to attend the 2023 NFL draft - in her video, she pretends to cry and says all three of her children have a range of health issues that they don't have, much to her kids' confusion.
Szabo's video seems to follow the same formula. In it, she tells her twin sons that she wants to try to "win a trip on a cruise ship" and that her children should "go along" with her story.
The mom continues the video by saying her kids deserve to win the cruise trip competition, given that they'd "been through a lot." Szabo tells the camera: "When they were born they had a triplet brother, who they lost."
Attempting to hold back laughter in the video, Szabo says her kids are "still in denial" after the twins can be heard saying "we don't have a twin brother."
Pretending to shed tears for the cruel prank, Szabo asks her sons to put their arms around each other, before stating: "In loving memory of Lawrence. Please Royal Caribbean. Bless these boys on their birthday."
Despite being deleted, one user has managed to repost the video. In the caption, they add: "She now made a video telling people to delete these videos that she posted and wants everyone to erase this video."
"I'm so sorry for all the woman that have lost their babies and had to see this video of what she and her husband did in front of their children and saying with lies and laughing about it... it's very disturbing and sad - I'll be praying for them [sic]," the caption continues.
The caption mirrors the sentiments of many users, who believe that Szabo and her husband were being insensitive to those who have lost loved ones.
One user wrote under the reposted video: "When my brother died I felt real pain and still do. This makes me livid [sic]."
While another added: "What was going through their heads? How could anyone think this was ok?"
Since the backlash Szabo faced after posting her TikTok, she has since made all of her social media accounts private.