The U.S. can proudly say that it’s the best at a lot of things. We’ve got some of the best junk food on the planet, we do a fairly decent job at protecting things like free speech and our media is so powerful that people in rural Mongolia likely know the name “Austin Powers.”


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One area where the U.S. fails to shine, however, is parental leave. We’re one of only a scant few countries in the world that don’t offer paid parental leave, so if you’re a new parent, you’re more than likely going to have to use up your vacation days if you want to spend any time with your newborn — that is, if you get vacation days at all.


Given this, it’s not surprising that some feel the need to mix their home and work lives. One such example recently went viral after being shared on X/Twitter.



The post shows a woman working at a fast-food chain. Hanging off the front of her body is a baby, who appears to be just chilling as the woman goes about her work. Naturally, this sparked an uproar on X/Twitter, with many users across the political spectrum sharing their thoughts about parenting in this country of ours.






As the last Tweet notes, there were a significant number of people speculating that this person is the owner of the franchise and is probably fairly well off.


For some context, the majority of franchise owners earn less than $50k per year, and the average annual pre-tax income of franchise owners is about $80k — significantly more than the median American income of $40k, but a far cry from the “mansion with three pools” status that some were casting onto the person in the photo.


Then again, maybe the baby loves it. I know I certainly would’ve enjoyed a free burger at any age — and if getting a few hot oil burns on my baby skin meant never having to pay for a Big Mac again, I can’t say I wouldn’t take that deal.