The hottest new viral trend is generosity, and there’s both bad news and good about the outcomes.
Moms have found a little way to offer kindness and a hand-up to others, especially at a time when parents are stressed to the breaking point, and families are going into debt for groceries. Naturally, there are folks out there making a conscious decision to choose selfishness instead.
Just the same, some moms are really going out of their way to make sure help is given where its needed.
What Is The #SheDeservedThePurse Trend, Anyway?
Moms and influencers go into big box stores and head to the baby formula and diaper aisles. There, they’re slipping a little cash or a gift card into the items so that some struggling mom gets an unexpected boost when she makes the necessary (and expensive) purchases for her infant.
It may be a twenty-dollar bill under the lid of a formula can, or it may be a store gift card squeezed into a diaper box via the handle or through the flap. Either way, the intent is to ensure that some moms who are stretching their budget to make ends meet get a little extra elasticity.
Then, they post videos on social media using the #SheDeservedThePurse hashtag and encourage others to do the same.
The Hashtag Comes From One Abandoned Purse
The idea is that moms often sacrifice what they want or need for their kids’ needs. Of course, that’s great—that’s love—that’s what we do—but it’s also about having empathy for those moms and wanting them to be able to treat themselves a little, too.
In this case, it’s about an unpurchased purse that some shopper must have had in their hand when she got to the infant aisle. The item has been abandoned between baby products, suggesting that when this mom did the math, she realized she could either purchase this small accessory for herself or whatever it was her baby needed that day, but not both, and made the same decision we’ve all made over and over again.
The TikToker who shared this said, “She deserved the purse.”
By the way, another TikTok user found the same purse when she was shopping, and the price tag—a mere twenty bucks—just adds to the heartbreak. Twenty dollars barely buys a couple of frozen pizzas, but it would have been enough for this unknown mom to treat herself to one tiny thing she wanted.
Criticism & Other Bad Behavior Around The Trend
While the idea of helping other moms — especially if you’re now in a place where you can spare a little and remember when you weren’t — is beautiful, some people are angry with those who post it on social media.
They argue that when posted online, it’s about clicks, views, and likes, not about actually helping others. Despite this criticism, the fact that it has become a viral hashtag means more people are participating, and those who benefit from it probably appreciate the gesture nonetheless — especially since it’s still anonymous and the recipients aren’t on camera.
The bigger problem, though, is that some people are taking advantage. There are videos of people going to the formula aisle and mining cans for cash gifts intended for purchasers, not scavengers.
Moms even find products damaged and opened when they try to make purchases because someone went on a cash hunt.
Some Moms & Content Creators Are Going Straight To The Recipient To Avoid This
As some moms see that the trend is backfiring with opportunists grabbing the cash gifts, they’ve decided to pass the love on to other moms more directly.
We’re seeing moms on TikTok buy gift cards and hand them to other moms in the baby section (by the way, absolute A+ behavior here not putting the recipient on camera; that is the right way) and explain that they just believe moms deserve to be able to treat themselves too.
In this video, for instance, the second mom is pregnant with her third child, and the gift card will definitely make a difference.
So, Are You Joining The Trend?
Even though some folks have hijacked the #SheDeservedThePurse trend for their own enrichment, the effort to pass a little love on to moms who are struggling is a positive note in a world that can be really tough on parents.
If you decide to take part, it’s probably a good idea to either stick with products that are less likely to be tampered with by treasure hunters, like boxes of diapers or to go with the face-to-face option as some TikTok creators have chosen to do. Please remember not to put any recipient on camera without permission!
By the way, one creator said that he only considered after participating that he had placed moment in brand-name items because he chose the products he preferred himself, and that store-brand products might be a better choice for getting gifts to the parents in the most need.
And if you’re a mom fighting to make ends meet, giving up things for your babies, please know that you, too, deserve the purse, whether or not you ever get it.
