Mum's genius hack to stop her child crying goes viral

Privacy might be a thing of the past if you have a young child - you can't do anything without keeping one eye on the baby at all times.

It's a familiar routine if you're a parent - walk away for one second and you child starts screaming, only to turn off the tears as soon as you're back in the room.

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But one mum came up with a plan to stop her one-year-old from crying every time she left the room.

A mother from Japan decided to trick her son into thinking she was still in the room by leaving different life-sized cardboard cutouts of herself around the house.

The dad shared the hack on Twitter and it wasn't long before it went viral.

He told Metro.co.uk it was his idea to film the baby's reaction to the cutouts.

One cutout shows the mum standing over the play pen just out of the toddler's reach as he plays. In another one she's crouching down as if watching him play.

But they were both placed out of reach so he couldn't run to her and find out they were just cardboard.

In the videos the baby can be seen happily playing away but looking at his mum occasionally.

And for those who might think this is neglectful parenting, not to worry - his dad was still there.

The mum could pop in and out every 20 minutes or so to make sure everything was running smoothly.

The toddler was none the wiser - until he grows up and finds he went viral for being tricked by some cardboard cutouts.