“We live in Florida,” the mother recalled telling her daughter. “That is a recipe for explosive diarrhea"
Credit: Meredith Masony/Instagram; Chick-fil-A
NEED TO KNOW
- Online parenting community founder Meredith Masony shared a now-viral Instagram Reel discussing her daughter’s “car ranch” — literally, ranch she keeps in her car
- Masony said in her video that she was astounded to discover her daughter eats months-old ranch that had been sitting in her car
- Online commenters defended the practice, noting that condiments like Chick-fil-A ranch are shelf-stable
A Florida mother sparked a viral Internet discourse when she questioned her daughter's “car ranch.”
Meredith Masony, founder of an online parenting community who goes by @thats_inappropriate on Instagram, shared a humorous anecdote about her daughter's car condiments in an Instagram Reel on May 8, launching a viral online conversation over keeping sauces in your car.
The debacle started when they ran out of ranch for dinner, and her daughter said she needed ranch, Masony said.
“I said, ‘I'm sorry, we're out of ranch,' ” Masony recalled. “So she says, ‘Hold on,' and she gets up, and she walks out of the house, so I assume she must be driving to the store to buy ranch.”
“She walks right back in, and she says, ‘Never mind, I'm fine,' ” Masony said, adding that she was confused as to why her daughter returned immediately.
“She goes, ‘I just remembered I have car ranch,' ” Masony said. “I said, ‘I'm sorry, what?' ”
The mother shared that her daughter repeated that she has car ranch, so she would use that for the meal.
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“I said, ‘What are you talking about? Why do you have ranch in your car?' ” Masony said.
Her daughter then told her that she gets extra ranch at Chick-fil-A and keeps packets in her car. Masony asked, in disbelief, how long the ranch was in her car, and her daughter replied, “Months.”
“I said, ‘You can't eat months-old ranch from your car, there's dairy in ranch!' ” Masony said.
Her daughter replied that it's fine because the ranch is packaged.
“That's not what that means! You can't just eat ranch that's been sitting in a vehicle!” Masony told her daughter.
Credit: Getty
“'We live in Florida,' ” Masony recalled telling her daughter. “'That is a recipe for explosive diarrhea.' ”
She said her daughter was unperturbed and proceeded to eat her dinner with the car ranch.
“Do your kids have car ranch?” Masony asked her viewers incredulously.
As it turns out, yes, they do.
“Girl, I have car ranch, car ketchup, car forks, car spoons, car knives, car Chick-fil-A sauce, car Advil…whatchu need?” one user wrote.
“I am 49 years old. I have car ranch, purse ranch, pocket ranch, extra fridge ranch, phone a friend ranch," another commenter wrote. "Ranch is a necessity. Period.”
Others noted that Chick-fil-A's ranch is shelf-stable, so you can keep the sealed packets outside of the fridge.
“Chick-fil-A ranch is shelf stable. The fact that it's shelf stable is concerning in and of itself but still…” one commenter wrote.
“Ranch in the grocery store is kept on the shelf. It says refrigerate AFTER opening. So, she's fine,” another added.
Masony realized from the online discussion that she “was way off-base, thinking that it was weird," she told Today.com.
“It's not weird. People do it, and I need to mind my own business,” she told the outlet.
She added that her husband and kids have other condiments in their cars, too, like Zaxby's Zax Sauce and Taco Bell's Fire and Mild Sauces — the latter of which she attributed to her husband being a “two-time [Taco Bell] Employee of the Month as a teenager” and thus having “an affinity” for it.
However, her acceptance of her family's and the online community's car condiments doesn't mean that Masony is going to be having her own car ranch anytime soon.
“I had food poisoning many years ago. And so I am very skeptical of food,” she told TODAY.com. “I could never have something in the car and then be like, ‘Oh yeah, I'll eat that later if it got left there.' There's just no way.”
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