A woman has been left aghast upon learning that her nine-year-old daughter was being bullied by other girls at school for carrying a 'fake' Stanley cup instead of the pricier authentic one that's become a viral sensation.
Ohio mom Danya Motycka shared a now-viral TikTok narrating the elementary-school drama.
Initially, for Christmas, she'd bought her daughter a $9.98 rainbow leopard-print tumbler cup from Walmart that the young girl 'thought was cute.'
'On the second day back to school after Christmas break, she comes home, she's not crying. She's just upset,' Dayna continued.
Ohio mom Danya Motycka shared a viral TikTok narrating how her daughter had been bullied for having a 'fake' Stanley cup that the nine-year-old had at first 'thought was cute'
Apparently, about nine or 10 other girls in her daughter's grade had been gifted 'real' Stanley cups as their Christmas presents - and went out of their way to point out that her daughter's 'is fake, and it's not as cool,' as Dayna explained.
The daughter then asked her mom if she could have a 'real Stanley' - a request that gave Dayna pause.
'Do I think a nine-year-old needs a Stanley? No,' the mom reflected.
'Do I have one? Yes, I have one,' she emphasized.
'I don't have 50 Stanleys in all different colors. I'm not going to Target and fighting other women or moms to try and get the new Valentine's Day Stanley,' Dayna said in reference to the escalating hype around the viral item.
The craze around the product has reached a fever pitch as of late, a phenomenon encapsulated by recent videos capturing long lines and even scuffles breaking out at mega-stores offering certain limited-edition versions of the product.
However, Dayna went on, as a mom, if 'you can do something to keep your child from getting made fun of to help fit in, you're going to do it.'
So, she ultimately bought her daughter a $35 'real' Stanley cup from Ace Hardware.
'Can we afford to buy her Stanley? Yes. Did I think that she needed one? No. Apparently I've been proven wrong by the children in our school that are making fun of her for not having a real, name-brand Stanley,' Dayna added.
'But this doesn't start with the kids … This starts with parents. What are we teaching our kids?'
Recent viral videos have revealed limited-edition Stanley cups disappearing from mega-store shelves within minutes
The Stanley-cup craze has led to long lines and even rumored scuffles at mega-stores that stock the product
Dayna fumed: 'You better believe that if our nine-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 it is, we would be calling the family.
'We would be making her write a note to apologize; we would make her apologize in person, because that's not what we do in this household.
'We are fortunate enough that we can afford name brand things. But once again, we're trying to teach our kids they don't necessarily need that.
'Things are earned. You have to work for things in your life. Not everything is just going to be handed to you.'
Dayna went on to describe that, in her own childhood, she was 'made fun of' for not having name-brand products.
'I remember the first time that my mom found me a Limited Too bathing suit at Goodwill. And I felt so good to have that name-brand clothing,' she said.
'I know now, as an adult, that that shouldn't have meant something, but it did because it made me feel like I fit in, even though we are trying to teach our kids to be unique and to be themselves. And I'm all for that!'
She concluded: 'But we have got to teach our kids to not make other kids feel inferior for not having the things that they have. That's it. That's where it starts and it starts with us as parents.'
Commenters flooded in to commiserate with Dayna about the Stanley-cup craze
Through nearly 20,000 comments on Dayna's post, viewers widely commiserated with the situation.
'If my kid had a Stanley & shamed another kid not having a Stanley, the other kid would be the proud, new owner of my kid's Stanley,' one wrote.
'The girls who made fun of others in the 2000s for not having Uggs/Abercrombie are the moms of the girls making fun of others for not having Stanleys,' a second imagined.
'My boys have followed my example. So they respond w things like "Well at least I have the thing that I like instead of the thing everyone else likes"' a third added - to which Dayna responded, 'I LOVE that response!!! You're a great mama!!'
'My school banned Stanleys because the teachers got tired of cleaning up spills constantly,' a fourth shared.
'As a teacher it's crazy how many students got Stanleys for Christmas. My first period has 28 girls and 21 had a Stanley cup the first day back,' a fifth chimed in.
'These Stanley cups and drunk elephant is taking over our youth,' another bemoaned also mentioning the viral beauty brand Drunk Elephant.
And one commenter gave an especially succinct and accurate take on the issue, writing: 'IT. IS. A. CUP.'
