An electric ride-on car for kids is going viral due to its dual use as a floor cleaner. But one mom is not a fan.
You needn’t look far to see how many conveniences our society has. We can basically get anything delivered to our front door, and from coffee to a full dinner, drive-thrus allow us to pick up meals from morning to night without having to change out of our pajamas. Floor Scrubber-Sweeper Cleaning Machine
Meanwhile, our phones are capable of ordering products from Q-tips to cars, and machines do almost everything else: Roombas vacuum for us, dishwashers clean our plates, cups, and utensils, and TVs and iPads can be our babysitters.
Modern conveniences are great, but at what point has it gone from helpful to harmful? I surmise we are there with the introduction of a new product that purports to be a ride-on toy for kids—but also cleans floors in the home.
The Kids Clean Car, which is available on Amazon for $200 (although at time of writing, it’s sold out), went viral after TikTok influencer and mom Arin Solange posted a short review. In her video, captioned “working harder not smarter with this mom hack,” we see her son riding the electric car that features an attachment on the front—so kids can clean the floors, while they play.
Solange, who also tested out the car, informs us that the ride-on is for outdoor use, too. Sanitary, right? But the idea of mopping floors with a mini-appliance that has rolled all over the dirty sidewalk and driveway isn’t what really turns me off about the Kids Clean Car.
Instead, I can’t help but feel that we have finally zapped the last inch of fun out of our kids’ lives with this product. And I thought things were bad when we started pushing virtual workouts on our toddlers instead of taking them outside to run and play. But no, now we’re asking them to sanitize the floor while they enjoy just being kids.
I’m sad about this ride-on cleaner for other reasons, too. Sure, teaching kids to do their fair share of helping to keep the house clean is a great lesson. But if we’re going to have kids do chores, the least we can do is encourage physical movement involved in tasks like vacuuming and mopping.
Commenters to the TikTok pointed out other grounds for giving up on society, with many noting that this toy looks unsafe. At least one commenter thought it seemed easy for a child to hit their head on a corner of a table while tooling around on the ride-on, which offers various speed settings, incidentally, from 0-5 miles per hour. Keep in mind, there is also no safety belt.
Among the other criticisms of the appliance, er toy, er appliance, is the price tag. Some TikTok users blasted the video for being out of touch since many families are struggling financially, with one person sadly admitting, “Yeah I’m just trying to afford laundry soap at this point in my life.” Another commenter lamented, “Tell me you’re rich without telling me you’re rich.”
To be fair, hundreds of commenters said they wanted to try the product, but others weren’t so sure. “It’s giving child labor,” one person snarked.
In the end, if this ride-on floor cleaner makes your life easier, and you don’t buy any of the negativity around it, then that’s honestly great. I’m for anything that makes raising kids more manageable. But the appliance some call “genius” definitely doesn’t fit into my world view of how to run our family. Instead, I just wonder what’s next: a baby swing that helps power the house? OK, that’s not a half-bad idea.
What I’m getting at is that childhood is fleeting, more so than ever today, and I want to preserve every last opportunity to keep kids playing and using their imagination; not being told to cruise back into the kitchen on an e-vehicle because they “missed a spot.”
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