I’m a clever dad — here’s how to test if your child is faking asleep

How to see if their slumber is fuga-Zzz.

Tired of your tots pretending to sleep so they can watch television? Not to fear: A Tennessee dad has devised a clever bit of “reverse psychology” to tell if the nipper is faking a snooze, which he detailed in a video with over 24.5 million views on TikTok.

In the clip, Chattanooga resident Kyle Phillip, 36, can be seen walking up to his daughter Isabella while she lies in bed with her eyes closed as the TV plays in the background.

“Ok Issa’s supposed to be asleep, not watching TV,” the father explains in the clip purposefully within earshot of his “slumbering” progeny. “She’s supposed to be out.”

That’s when da decides to deploy the parenting hack.

“I saw on TikTok to test to see if your kids are actually sleeping or not,” he explained. “If you lift their hand up in the air and it stays up in the air, they’re asleep. But if it falls, they’re faking it.”

Phillip then lifts up Isabella’s arm, which stays in the air, proving that she was actually awake as she’d been listening to his spiel and therefore thought she knew how to game the system.

“Oh yeah, she’s out,” the bemused father exclaims sarcastically as Isabella continues to pretend to be asleep.

The clip ends with Phillip collapsing into laughter, obviously amused by his daughter’s improv skills.

The TikTok commentariat were impressed with the father’s clever hack with one gushing: “The reverse psychology hit hard here.”

“Not me just realizing that this is reverse psychology,” said another. “I was like, if she’s awake she would purposely have her hand up.”

However, one viewer claimed: “Her smile gave it away long before you lifted her arm.”

Meanwhile, others shared their parents’ hacks for telling if they were truly zonked out or just pretending.

“My mom use to keep saying “don’t smile”. Gets me every time,” recalled one commenter.

“My dad would just go up in our faces and go ‘smile if you’re awake,’ ” recounted another. “Get us every time but also woke us up when we were truly sleeping.”