A 5-Year-Old Removed His Hearing Device To Stop Listening To His Mom, And The Internet Is In Tears

2025 is off to what you might call a rough start. The zeitgeist is heavy; the morale is low. Sometimes, you just want to turn it all off and take a break.

Beth Leipholtz is a Minnesota-based photographer, web designer, and content creator who knows a thing or two about that. And while she can't just tune out the world when she wants to, her 5-year-old son Cooper certainly can. Beth recently posted a video of Cooper literally turning off his hearing, and it's the best thing you'll see all week.

@beth_and_coop / TikTok / Via tiktok.com

The video has amassed 5.8 million views and nearly 1 million likes. Beth captioned it: "Welp. It's been a long time since Coop simply *muted* me."

Cooper was born profoundly deaf, meaning he has a total lack of hearing. "A jet plane could have taken off next to him without him hearing it," Beth said. He was born with Waardenburg syndrome, a rare genetic condition that often causes hearing loss.

Beth, who uses her social platforms @beth_and_coop to spread awareness and education about deafness, told BuzzFeed in an interview that she had been recording for a totally different purpose and was asking Cooper questions when he pulled off his cochlear implants.

@beth_and_coop / TikTok / Via tiktok.com

In the video, Beth immediately switches to signing (she and her husband are raising Cooper bilingually in English and ASL). "What?!" she asks. "Why?"

And then Cooper clears things up. "BREAK!" he says. "I need a break."

@beth_and_coop / TikTok / Via tiktok.com

"OK," his mom responds, laughing. Later, as Cooper picks out a toy from a box, Beth asks: "Why do you need a rest? Why did you need a break?!"

@beth_and_coop / TikTok / Via tiktok.com

Cooper reconnects the magnet and coil on his implants and says, "Because I want a break."

"From me?" Beth asks. "Talking," Cooper replies. Which, of course, everyone felt HARD.

@beth_and_coop / TikTok / Via tiktok.com

Instant joy.

His mom then asked, "What if I want a break from you talking? I don't have a cool superpower like you."

@beth_and_coop / Via tiktok.com

Cooper obviously responded, "That means you have to order them." (Cochlear implants, that is.) Beth asked him who would put the internal receiver in her head. Cooper told her his audiologist would. Duh!

@beth_and_coop / TikTok / Via tiktok.com

When she told him she wasn't deaf, he told her the doctors would have to make her deaf.

At the end of the video, Cooper mentions the white hair that often accompanies Waardenburg syndrome. His mom points out his patch of white hair, along with his "beautiful blue eyes." She adds, "And you have these cool cochlear implants because you're deaf," and gives him a kiss.

@beth_and_coop / TikTok / Via tiktok.com

So, are you crying yet?

A bit of background: Cooper has cochlear implants, an electronic hearing device different from a hearing aid. They look something like this:

According to the NIH, "Hearing aids amplify sounds so they may be detected by damaged ears. Cochlear implants bypass damaged portions of the ear and directly stimulate the auditory nerve. Signals generated by the implant are sent by way of the auditory nerve to the brain, which recognizes the signals as sound."

The magnet connects to an "electrode array that is threaded into the cochlea, which then sends signals to the brain when the external piece (the processor) is connected," Beth explained. So, if the magnetized piece of Cooper's cochlear implant isn't connected, he can't process sound — or hear — at all. "In other words, he was choosing to take a break from the world of sound," Beth said.

Beth told BuzzFeed that she and her husband found out about Cooper's "full sensorineural hearing loss in both ears," or profound deafness, the month after he was born, in October 2019, at an audiology appointment. Cooper had already had two abnormal hearing screenings and went in for more advanced testing.

"After a fairly normal pregnancy and delivery, this came as a shock to all of us. We took time to grieve and process, then we began learning as much as possible," she said. "As Cooper's parents, we are committed to educating ourselves and advocating for him. Cooper has bilateral cochlear implants and uses a combination of spoken language and sign language to communicate."

Cooper's cochlear implants essentially allow him to opt in or out of hearing, a tool he's used since he was very young. Beth said Cooper taking off his implants isn't new. "He did it ALL the time when he was younger, especially in the few years following getting his implants," she told BuzzFeed. "Now, at age 5, he does it much less frequently, and he typically prefers to be connected to the hearing world apart from when he is sleeping or sick."

"We always have given him autonomy over his hearing devices. There are some medical professionals who will tell you that in order for a child to have the best outcome with cochlear implants, they must wear them all waking hours," Beth said. "We never abided by that. We did not want to force Cooper into the hearing world but rather, give him choices as he grew up." She also explained that Cooper usually communicates verbally but that ASL is a useful tool at home (both she and her husband learned to sign after Cooper's diagnosis) and at school with his interpreter since "crowded environments can be more difficult for those with cochlear implants."

"When he was younger, it was a way for him to self-regulate and calm down. There would be times he would be having a meltdown, then take his implants off and immediately be more at peace. Now that he is older, he doesn’t take them off nearly as often," Beth said. "But the important thing is that he KNOWS that he can and has every right to do so. We have tools in place in his preschool classroom for that exact reason. The beauty of it is that he gets to decide."

You can see a video of how Cooper used to take hearing breaks versus now here.

As you can probably imagine, the internet was obsessed with this interaction (and just a little jealous). This person said, "Okay but needing a break from talking and hearing is so real."

Someone commented, "Him simply muting you is so funny."

Another commenter wrote, "The way he said, 'BREAK!' 'I need a BREAK'... I feel you kid, I feel you."

Someone else related with: "when My social battery runs out."

Lots of folks pointed out how emotionally intelligent Cooper is, like this person who said, "Omg I'm so jealous actually. He's such a smart kid instead of crashing out from overstimulation he just goes *pop*."

Someone else wrote, "He can literally enforce his boundaries in real time so cute!"

Other people shared similar stories of loved ones using their own "superpowers." Another mom wrote, "My toddler takes her glasses off when she's annoyed with me. 'I don't want to see you!' Is what she tells me lol."

Another viewer shared, "My boyfriend and I once were in an argument and he just took his hearing aids out and honestly all I could do was giggle because it was so clever."

Still another wrote, "My son has hearing aids and looks me right in the eye and takes them out while I'm fussing at him."

And basically everyone was in awe of Beth as a mom and her relationship with sweet Coop. One person commented, "'I don't have a cool superpower like you' is such a beautiful way to embrace his uniqueness your relationship is so special."

Several fellow moms of deaf children chimed in, like the person who told Beth, "Just recently found you on here. My son is deaf & scheduled to get implants in April & I hope this is my boy someday."

"I share moments like this because they're parenting experiences I never thought I'd be living," Beth told BuzzFeed. "I also know that early on in his diagnosis, I spent so much time watching similar videos from parents of deaf children, and they brought me a sense of comfort and hope. I want other parents in the throes of it all to have that, too."

Beth says she is consistently blown away by the love for her family on her page. "I also love when people have the realization that being deaf isn’t something to be pitied or changed — it's actually an incredibly beautiful culture and community with so much depth and history that I never knew existed before Cooper."

What do you think? Is there anything you wish you could "turn off" from time to time? Let us know in the comments.