‘I went on a Reddit doom scroll’: Tennessee woman goes over to man’s house. Then she sees what he’s doing with his blanket

Modern dating isn't the easiest thing in the world. Dating horror stories populate every corner of the internet, and it's hard enough trying to find your soulmate without wondering if that guy from the dating app is secretly a serial killer.

But the stakes of dating aren't always life or death; sometimes, incompatibilities come down to good-old-fashioned “icks.” One woman shared an ick that had her commenters split as to whether it was truly worth ending a potential romance over.

Why did the content creator get the ‘ick'?

TikTok creator Belle (@jalapenobiscuit) posted a video about a hugely disruptive ick while dating a man. As of this writing, the video is no longer available on TikTok. Prior to being removed, the video had nearly 40,000 views.

“So I was talking to a boy for like three months … before I finally decided that I was going to go over to his house to hang out with him instead of going on, like, a real date,” Belle said. “First time going to his house. I walk in, I meet his mom. Everything is fine.”

Belle clarified that the boy didn't own the home. His mother did. She said she and the guy went up to his room. They sat on his bed for “about 10 minutes,” while Belle scrolled on her phone.

And that's when things got strange.

“I see something suspicious on the bed,” Belle said. “It's a blue blanket. It's got flowers all over … it's tied in a knot … bigger than my head, and I'm thinking really nothing much. Because men … don't really take care of themselves.”

Belle said most men “don't know hygiene,” so she figured “this was a blanket that he sleeps with on his bed.” Belle said that would already be “bad enough.” But a few more minutes passed, and Belle watched him get up to go play a computer game. He took the blanket with him.

“Not thinking anything of it, you know, everybody needs a little bit of warmth in their life,” Belle said. “I'm sitting on my phone… absolutely minding my business, okay? When all of a [expletive] sudden, I hear a ringing in my ear.”

Looking up, Belle saw the man was getting up close and personal with his baby blanket.

What was Belle's issue with the baby blanket?

Belle noticed that the man held the baby blanket to his face. He was “sniffing it so ferociously and vigorously as if it is the sweetest nectar that has ever come from God's green earth.”

Belle said she felt that she had never seen anything like it. She took a video of the man and sent it to her friend. Then she immediately began to search for answers on Reddit.

Belle concluded her video by revealing that he'd turned out to be a bad guy anyway. She added that, seeing as “Belle loves [bad guys],” he might have gotten away with it if the blanket-sniffing did not happen.

“You can't be a [bad guy] and also compulsively sniff a baby blanket,” Belle said. “You can't. Pick and choose your [expletive] battle.”

How old is too old for a security blanket?

Viewers were torn in Belle's comment section. Some thought it was inappropriate for any individual to act like that toward their baby blanket. Some viewers, for instance, called the whole thing “weird.” Many commenters, however, defended the man, and shared similar experiences.

“Ya, that's a thing,” wrote one viewer. “My sister is 50 years old and still has a shred of her blanket and sniffs it to this day. Leave him be.”

“My husband has had a little fabric ‘blanket' he fidgets with (and occasionally sniffs…) since childhood,” another person commented. “It helps calm his busy brain. His mom used to make them for him, even making a backup before she passed from pancreatic cancer. Now I make them for him. Everyone has their comfort thing, and if it brings him peace, I'll keep making them as long as he needs them.”

“I'm 50, I sleep with my baby blanket and teddy bear I've had since birth,” shared a third person. “I will till I die. I ball up my blanket and bury my face in it and just close my eyes, sniff it, feel the tattered, beat to [expletive] waffle fabric against my face and feel so calm and happy. It's a part of my childhood, it's been with me my entire life and I'll never ever part with it.”

What do experts say?

There are a number of reasons why a person could be attached to a baby blanket. For instance, an individual may exhibit signs of attachment toward “adult comfort objects,” also called “transitional objects.“

According to MentalHealth.com, “adults might turn to these items during times of grief, anxiety, or significant life changes.”

“For example, someone mourning the loss of a parent might find solace in wearing their parent's watch,” MentalHealth.com said. “Another person might carry a small token during medical treatments or job interviews to feel more grounded. Far from being a sign of immaturity, the use of comfort objects by adults is a form of adaptive coping that enables individuals to manage stress and enhance emotional resilience.”

Behavior analyst and guidance counselor Dr. Reena B. Patel echoed these sentiments when speaking with Refinery29. Patel said that while “we think there's supposed to be some set time that we need to start to remove or take away that transitional item,” we only really do so because of societal norms and pressures. She said it's quite common and normal for adults to hold these sentimental attachments to objects for mental health purposes.

Buzz News reached out to Belle via TikTok comment.