--- title: Baby Inspired to Take First Steps to Try to Get A French Fry description: This little girl just needed the right motivation to take her first steps canonical: https://time.com/5013257/baby-steps-french-fry/ author: Melissa Locker article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-11-07T17:11:09.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:48:32.599Z og:title: Baby Inspired to Take First Steps to Try to Get A French Fry og:description: This little girl just needed the right motivation to take her first steps og:url: https://time.com/5013257/baby-steps-french-fry/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Baby Inspired to Take First Steps to Try to Get A French Fry twitter:description: This little girl just needed the right motivation to take her first steps twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Relatable Baby Is Finally Inspired to Take First Steps to Try To Get a French Fry by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 7, 2017 5:11 PM UTC by [Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/) ## Melissa Locker Nov 7, 2017 5:11 PM UTC Sometimes we all need a little motivation in life. Sometimes that motivation comes in the form of a paycheck or a gold star or, for at least one very relatable [toddler](http://time.com/4968931/campbells-soup-ad-star-wars-kids/?iid=sr-link4), a french fry. [Little baby](http://time.com/4919208/potty-train-toddler-video/?iid=sr-link10) Evie did _not_ want to walk, even though her dad, Ben Hayman, was pretty sure she could do it if she tried. Turns out she just needed the correct form of motivation. That’s when her father came up with the idea of tempting her into taking a few steps by holding a french fry in front of her and slowly moving it out of her grasp, forcing her to follow like some ploy out of a Bugs Bunny cartoon. [ The trick](http://time.com/4960860/prince-harry-popcorn-invictus/?iid=sr-link1) worked, though, and soon enough Evie was taking a few cautious steps forward in hot pursuit of that deep-fried potato goodness. Ben Hayman laughed when [he told Storyful](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oT7QXX-JxRQ) about his daughter’s first steps, “Amazing what girls will do for food.” Just wait until he see what they’ll do for an hour of screen time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5013257/baby-steps-french-fry/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5013257/baby-steps-french-fry/"},"headline":"Relatable Baby Is Finally Inspired to Take First Steps to Try To Get a French Fry","datePublished":"2017-11-07T17:11:09.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:48:32.599Z","description":"This little girl just needed the right motivation to take her first steps","url":"https://time.com/5013257/baby-steps-french-fry/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","food and drink"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Melissa Locker","jobTitle":"","url":"https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5013257/baby-steps-french-fry/","name":"Relatable Baby Is Finally Inspired to Take First Steps to Try To Get a French Fry"}}]}] ```