Mom Whose Daughter Was Bullied Over Off-Brand Stanley Cup Calls on Parents to Do Better: 'This Starts with Us'

The mom was shocked at her daughter's classmates comments

• A 9-year-old stepped went to school with a new cup, only to find her friends said it "wasn't as cool" as a name-brand Stanley

• The child's mom, Dayna Motycka, shared the experience on TikTok and urged parents to pay attention to how kids are treating each other around trends

• Motycka also recalled her own childhood experiences and how she strives to do better as a mom and hopes others do too
  

A mom sharing her experience with her 9-year-old and the Stanley craze has gone viral as she encourages parents to think about what they teach their kids.

Dayna Motycka (@dayna_motycka on TikTok) posted a video earlier this month after her 9-year-old returned to school after the holidays with a Walmart Stanley dupe that she'd expressed interest in on a shopping trip. Motycka was shocked when her little girl came home from school upset because her cup led to some unkind behavior.

Holding up the cup, which was shaped the same but was white with a rainbow cheetah print ring around it and a pink handle, the mom began, "This is not a Stanley. This is a $9.98 Walmart cup that she said she thought was cute."

"On the second day back to school after Christmas break, she comes home. She's not crying, she's just upset," Motycka said, explaining many girls in her grade got a name-brand Stanley.

"She asks if she can have a real Stanley. Now, do I have one? Yes, I have one — not 50 different Stanleys in all different colors," Motycka explained, adding, "I'm not going to Target and fighting other women or moms to try and get the new Valentine's Day Stanley."

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Despite her strong feelings about the situation, Motycka did purchase her daughter a 30 oz. Stanley, explaining, "If you're a parent and you can do something to keep your child from getting made fun of, to help fit in, you're going to do it."

Motycka pointed out that while they could afford a Stanley, neither she nor her husband felt their 9-year-old needed one prior to this happening. That's when she made her plea to other parents to stop contributing to this kind of behavior.

"This starts with us," she leveled. "What are we teaching our kids? You better believe that if our 9-year-old daughter came home and somehow we found out that she made fun of another girl at school for not having something name brand — whether it's a Stanley, Lululemon, Uggs, I don't care what — we would be calling the family."

She continued, "We would be making her write a note to apologize. We would make her apologize in person because that's now what we do in this household and that's what we need to be teaching our kids."

Motycka wants her kids to know that while they can afford certain brand-name things, "You have to work for things in life. Not everything is just going to be handed to you."

The incident hit a sore spot for Motycka, who admitted she was in the position of being bullied for not having name-brand things herself growing up.

"I remember the first time my mom found a Limited Too bathing suit at Goodwill and I felt so good to have that brand name clothing. I know now as an adult that it shouldn't have mattered to me but it did because it made me feel like I fit in," she recalled.

"Even though we are trying to teach our kids to be unique and to be themselves — and I am all for that — if my daughter asks for something to fit in with the kids at school and she feels cool and it's something she really wants and I can do that for her, I'm going to," the mom added.

"But we have got to teach our kids not to make other kids feel inferior for not having the things that they have. That's it. That's where it starts and ends, with us as parents."

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