It’s every aunt’s sacred duty to introduce a chaos into our child-rearing sibling’s lives, an assignment TikTok user Emily Barlow (@emilybarlow6) understands completely.
Just look to her page if you need proof, where — nestled in between other side-splitting sibling content — a video exposing Barlow’s truly malicious nature resides. Filmed on the second birthday of Barlow’s little niece, the less-than 10-second clip reveals the auntie’s love for mayhem in the form of a musical instrument.
A drum set, to be precise, which Barlow was kind (is that the right word?) enough to gift to her freshly two-year-old family member. A million headaches are in her sister’s future, thanks to the gift, and you can see it written all over her already-exhausted face when the camera pans to the poor unfortunate mom.
You can actually see revenge brewing behind her eyes as Barlow’s sister glances over to glare at the giver of such a racket of a gift. My own parents made this same mistake when I was young, and — while it did instill a lifelong love for percussion — it also upped the noise in our home by at least 10 decibels. And when you already have other noise-makers (see: children) crowding up the home, more racket is the last thing you need.
There are benefits to learning music young, which we’re going to pretend was the reason behind Barlow’s clearly malicious gift. Kids who start learning instruments at a young age have “better verbal memory, second language pronunciation accuracy, reading ability, and executive functions,” according to the National Library of Medicine, and that’s not all. The drums, and other members of the percussion family, are particularly helpful for kids displaying hyperactivity, and developing skills on the drums are extra beneficial for kids diagnosed with autism.
All those benefits point to that drum kit being the perfect gift, but somehow I don’t think Barlow’s sister agrees with that assessment. Nor do the majority of commenters, who — thoroughly tickled by Barlow’s unique revenge — piled onto her poor sister, and predicted a swift incoming retribution.
That retribution did eventually come to pass (it was even captured on video) but it won’t be enough to ease the pain of the next few years. Barlow’s sister may well see her daughter develop cognitive skills quicker than other kids, and she may even eventually get pretty good on that drum set, but there will never be a day when the sound of a cymbal doesn’t set her teeth on edge.