Dad's Hack to Check if Daughter Is Still Awake Results in Sweetest Response

A dad's adorable hack to check if his child is still awake is making the rounds on TikTok.

In the viral TikTok video posted by family the Dashleys (@thedashleys), a father holds up a snack to his daughter in a baby carrier on his back. A tiny hand emerges from the side of his head to grab the snack, melting the hearts of more than 2.8 million users who liked the post, and prompting over 3,700 comments from viewers.

"How to tell if the tiny human in your backpack is still awake," the father captioned the video. "The little hand."

Viewers gushed at the child saying "Thanks dad!" in response to his offering.

"That's a polite tiny human," @raeofsunshine317 wrote.

"But are you awake? Because you didn't say, 'You're welcome,'" @msz_coca posted.

"The way she has to wrap her whole hand around that tiny goldfish to grab it," @big_keish_ commented.

Many are also saying the clip is causing them "baby fever"—the burning desire to have and nurture a child.

What Is Baby Fever and Does it Have Scientific Backing?

A study conducted by researchers at Kansas State University found that not only does baby fever actually exist, but it exists regardless of gender.

In general, researchers found several factors that predicted how much a person wanted to have a baby: "positive exposure", "negative exposure," and trade-offs.

Positive exposure relates to the comfortable aspects of looking after babies—like cuddling them—while negative exposure involves the less-glamorous aspects of caretaking such as tantrums and diaper changes. Trade-offs refer to the things people might compromise or give up when having a child, like a career or a social life.

"We had people who were high on the positive aspects, and they see all the good things about babies and want a baby," Gary Brase, associate professor of psychology and researcher on the study, said. "We also had people who were high on the negative aspects and absolutely do not want to have babies. Then we had people who were high on both positive and negative aspects and were very conflicted about children."

The research involved college students and an online survey to reach a larger number of participants.

"Having children is kind of the reason we exist—to reproduce and pass our genes on to the next generation," Brase said. "But, economically, having children is expensive and you don't get any decent financial return on this investment. And yet, here we are, actual people kind of stuck in the middle."

"Go away baby fever, I can't support a child," @_snazzy_jaz_gas wrote under the Dashleys' video.