{"id":43469,"date":"2026-04-07T04:16:05","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:16:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=43469"},"modified":"2026-04-07T04:16:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T04:16:05","slug":"parents-are-yelling-jessica-in-bizarre-trend-to-stop-a-tantrum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/?p=43469","title":{"rendered":"Parents are yelling &#8216;Jessica&#8217; in bizarre trend to stop a tantrum"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>An amusing new parenting trend is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@vshlib\/video\/7620621684256541983\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">going viral online<\/a>, with parents discovering a weird hack to get their toddlers to calm down from a tantrum.<\/p>\n<p>On social media, parents are sharing videos of them <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@caela.casy\/video\/7623640097707101461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shouting the name \u201cJessica\u201d<\/a> while their child is in the middle of a meltdown \u2014 and it mostly works to stop kids from crying and screaming.<\/p>\n<p>Parents are showing the name \u201cJessica\u201d and their children are pausing their tantrum to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@krislynakuhn\/video\/7621703652486515981\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">look around in confusion<\/a> as they try to figure out who Jessica is.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cJessica\u201d has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@paulinagar5\/video\/7623239145845951757\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">the go-to name<\/a> in many cases, but some say that calling out any random name works just as well.<\/p>\n<p>Tiffani Ortega, a mom in Florida, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@tiffaniortegaaa\/video\/7622351432397737247\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shared a video<\/a> of her husband strapping their 2-year-old son into his car seat after leaving the park, which he was crying over. Once the husband said \u201cJessica,\u201d the son stopped crying.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I hadn\u2019t said that, he probably would have cried the whole way home,\u201d Ortega <a href=\"https:\/\/www.today.com\/parents\/family\/viral-jessica-trick-stops-tantrums-rcna266259\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">told Today.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>California-based mom Evanthia Davis shared a video of her toddler hysterically crying \u2014 and stopping the moment \u201cJessica\u201d was called out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWow, this worked so well. This will be my new go-to when my baby \/ toddler cries,\u201d she wrote in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@evanthiadavis\/video\/7622829906979785998\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">caption of the video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Another mom <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@abs_john\/video\/7621684315801308430\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">shared on TikTok<\/a> that she\u2019s tried the trick three times already and \u201cwe magically stop crying and start looking for the Jessica that does not exist.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\"\/>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\"\/>\n<p>It appears to all come down to timing and the element of surprise.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Deborah Gilboa, a family physician and resilience expert, told Today that it\u2019s harder to shift a toddler\u2019s attention than a baby\u2019s because \u201cthey have more perseverance, and they have object permanence,\u201d so what\u2019s causing them to react still exists in their minds even when it\u2019s out of sight.<\/p>\n<p>During a temper tantrum, toddlers tend to be intensely focused on whatever it is that\u2019s upsetting them, and calling out a name that\u2019s unexpected can interrupt that focus. <\/p>\n<p>Just a brief moment of confusion can shift their attention and cause them to calm down from a meltdown.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-tiktok wp-block-embed-tiktok\"\/>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><button class=\"button button--modal-trigger\" aria-label=\"Open the image in a modal.\" data-modal-image=\"39005583\"><br \/>\n\t<svg xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"icon-plus\" fill=\"#fff\" viewbox=\"0 0 1033 1000\" width=\"1em\" height=\"1em\"><path d=\"M380 364V0h273v355h380v290H653v355H380V645H0V355h380v9z\"\/><\/svg><br \/>\n<\/button><br \/>\n<figcaption>A mom shared on TikTok that she\u2019s tried the trick three times already. <span class=\"credit\">@ abs_john \/ TikTok<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cSaying something kind of unexpected, out of context, like Jessica, is acting as a pattern interrupt. and it\u2019s causing a pause and break in the cycle, which then gives you the opportunity to do all the other things that aren\u2019t being shown in the videos like validate your child\u2019s emotions,\u201d child psychiatrist Dr. Willough Jenkins <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@drwilloughjenkins\/video\/7625015009365576973\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">explained in a TikTok video<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Even at a young age, the brain knows to look at new situations and assess potential risks, so the unexpected difference in routine signals a potential change to their environment and can cause their attention to shift.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt works because the brain is like, \u2018Wait, what?\u2019 \u201d Gilboa explained.<\/p>\n<p>However, she noted that it works <em>because<\/em> it\u2019s unexpected, so as soon as a child starts to recognize the pattern, the \u201cJessica\u201d hack will likely be over.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/06\/lifestyle\/parents-are-yelling-jessica-in-bizarre-trend-to-stop-a-tantrum\/\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An amusing new parenting trend is going viral online, with parents discovering a weird hack to get their toddlers to calm down from a tantrum. On&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43470,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-43469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=43469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/43470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=43469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=43469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foreignnewstoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=43469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}