Genius or gross? Mum fills kiddy pool with nachos to feed her 12 kids

Parents of large families know all too well that when it comes to dinnertime, convenience wins. 

But one mum to 12 - yes, 12 - children has gone viral on TikTok with a creative dinner hack that some are calling “unhygienic”. 

Alicia Dougherty, who is based in New York, parents 12 children with her husband and often shares snippets of their life with her 6.1 million followers on TikTok. 

It comes as no surprise that food preparation is one of their biggest tasks as parents - but one particular meal has gone viral for a few reasons, dubbed #NachoPool. 

A clip which has been viewed nearly three million times shows Dougherty preparing a gigantic sharing plate of nachos in a plastic paddling pool. 

She first pours bulk amounts of tortilla chips into the pool, topping them with beef mince, a cheesy sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, olives and generous drizzles of sour cream - all straight from cans or bottles apart from the cheese sauce. 

Dougherty's kids tuck in to the kiddy pool filled with nachos. Photo / @doughertydozen

Her kids can then be seen tucking into their pool nachos and double dipping to their heart’s content. 

Viewers found a lot to unpack in the comments section, with many of them remarking that they couldn’t stomach cold nachos let alone nachos served in a paddling pool. 

“Is it too much to ask for hot nachos?” one queried, while others questioned if it was really enough to feed everyone. “This [is] barely enough for us two,” one person wrote. 

Others took a more philosophical approach, wondering if one could use the nacho pool within a pool. “Hear me out ... does it float?” one asked. 

Another took it extremely personally and labelled the dinnertime hack as “a hate crime”. 

Others were concerned over whether it was hygienic to share a meal straight from a paddling pool. 

“My anxiety could never with all of the hands and the double dipping,” one wrote. 

“Not sure the pool is food safe but yolo,” another commented, while another admitted, “I can’t get down with the communal eating.” 

This article was first published by the NZ Herald and is republished here with permission.