Creative Japanese father prints life-sized cardboard cutouts of wife so son won't cry in her absence

Modern parenting requires modern solutions.

Ashley Tan | December 13, 2019, 01:09 AM

Sometimes, parenthood presents its own unique obstacles, which may require some ingenuity to overcome.

One father in Japan certainly rose to the challenge.

Fooling son with realistic cutout

In a tweet, which has since amassed over 47,000 retweets and around 123,000 likes, one @sato_nezi showed how he solved his son's separation anxiety while his wife was away.

Sato shared that his one-year-old child would start to cry uncontrollably whenever he lost sight of his mother.

Which led to some rather resourceful parenting methods.

Sato decided to print a life-sized cardboard cutout of his wife, perhaps to trick his son into thinking his mother was still around.

For added realism, the cutout was even printed in two different poses, one of the mother standing, and another of her kneeling down.

Here are photos of the innocuous cutout, placed in appropriate parts of the house.

Photo from @sato_nezi / Twitter

Photo from @sato_nezi / Twitter

And it seems the method worked. Look how happy he is.

Photo from @sato_nezi / Twitter

Another video posted on Twitter shows the son happily playing with his toys, with fake Mommy "standing" in the background.

The video shows Sato's wife placing the cutout in position, before quickly sneaking out the front door while their son is distracted by the TV.

Sato added that his son was fooled for about 20 minutes, and said the cutout "could be a lifesaver".

Smart.

Top photo from @sato_nezi / Twitter