The Subway Baby TikTok, Explained

You walk into your local Subway, hungry for either a Meatball Marinara, an Italian B.M.T., or what have you. It's lunch hour and, as expected, the place seems pretty busy. There are people eating subs. There's someone cleaning up spilled soda by a table. And of course, there's a man with a baby on his chest, making sandwiches ... wait, what?

Fast food is associated with greasy burgers and value meals, but it's not uncommon to consider fast food to be pretty weird in general. We don't just mean some of the utterly bizarre combinations of poultry, beef, and fried foods out there on the market — there's also plenty of colorful characters and strange scenarios you may see at your fast food spot. Maybe it's the cheap prices, maybe it's the fast service, but something about fast food restaurants attracts weird situations. However, is the baby-adorned employee in Subway, as shown in TikTok user Leslie Munoz's video, just another bizarre occurrence? A video taken out of context? Or, maybe, does it point toward something a bit more controversial about Subway as a business? 

Munoz's video featured a Subway employee prepping sandwiches and taking orders — all with a wide-eyed baby hanging out inside his carrier, slung over the man's chest. Despite having an extra "assistant" with him, the man went about his job in a routine manner, stopping only to pat the baby on the back to help him relax. 

Comments on the video were largely filled with praise for the man and his apparent son, pointing him out to be an example of a hard-working single dad. For instance, one TikTok user wrote, "I would go to Subway so often to see this beautiful baby!" Another comment said, in support of the man, "If I saw this I would tip them extra." This user explained that she was a working mom and understood the difficult situation of bringing a child to work. Much of the support for the presumed parent in the video has stemmed from the fact that Subway doesn't offer paid maternity leave, according to Indeed, which is a turn-away for single parents. 

Other users seemed to disagree on the idea of bringing children to the workplace, arguing that it wasn't safe for a child to be put in this position while food is being served. On the other hand, others noted the struggles of being a single parent, particularly one who works in the service industry, and how much easier it would be for them if they could bring their children in.

Despite social media users praising the man as the baby's father, Munoz revealed herself to be the child's parent, and explained that the man is an old friend and co-worker who "adores her son" and just wanted to take a video with him while working (via Newsweek).