Parents pull hilarious dorm room prank on their college son using life-size cutout
“Dad and I are always with you 😂”

We spy a new parenting trend.
Sending kids off to college is a milestone filled with conflicting feelings, both for the kids and the parents. There’s excitement, pride and anticipation, plus nostalgia, loss and yearning all rolled into one pivotal life moment.
Perhaps one of the best tools to help cope with the heavier, more challenging emotions bound to arise is having a sense of humor. And some parents have it in spades.
Mom and content creator Jill Wagner had asked her son Hakin what he would like for his dorm room at Maryville University.
Hakin’s answer? Posters. Plain and simple. And it’s that lack of specificity that would land Hakin in a hilarious prank concocted by Mom and Dad.
In a clip shared to Wagner’s TikTok, we see Hakin shaking his head with disbelief as he walks in to see a giant cardboard cutout of his mom.
"Honey, I know you're gonna miss me so much; I got a life-size picture of me for your dorm. That way, if any girls try to come in your room, they can see me," Wagner says through a giggle.
Hakin, also laughing, says the line every parent of a teen has heard, "That is so embarrassing!” before telling his father to put it where nobody can see it.
Instead of a cardboard cutout, dad decided to go a little more old school—a photo of himself pointing to a laundry hamper, made into a poster, stuck right above the laundry hamper in Hakin’s room. Meta.
In her caption, Wagner wrote, “Dad and I are always with you 😂”
Enjoy the wholesome hijinks below:
@jillwagner81 @Hakin Wagner Dad and i are always with you😂 #maryville #moveinday #college ♬ original sound - Jill
Close to 500,000 people have watched the clip, with several chiming in to share that they would be incorporating the idea for their own kids. More embarrassment to come, it seems!
The college transition is sure to be one of heightened emotions. You can follow all the recommended guidelines for make it a little smoother—plan the move-in day accordingly, jot down meaningful messages to leave behind, create memories with one last family vacation, look into new hobbies—but at the end of the day, parents are still going to be feeling all the feels.
And just like any beautiful chapter in life, we are meant to savor the sweet along with the bitter. While it’s probably best to try to hold in those tears during the actual move-in day (it is the kid’s day, after all) it’s completely natural to let it all out on the car ride home.
Wagner’s delightful prank might have gotten some viral laughs, but it also highlights a more lighthearted, optimistic way for parents to take on what’s sure to be a day full of big feelings.
There's a reason why some people can perfectly copy accents, and others can't
Turns out, there's a neurodivergent link.
A woman in black long sleeve shirt stands in front of mirror.
Have you ever had that friend who goes on vacation for four days to London and comes back with a full-on Queen's English posh accent? "Oooh I left my brolly in the loo," they say, and you respond, "But you're from Colorado!" Well, there are reasons they (and many of us) do that, and usually it's on a pretty subconscious level.
It's called "accent mirroring," and it's actually quite common with people who are neurodivergent, particularly those with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). According Neurolaunch, the self-described "Free Mental Health Library," "Accent mirroring, also known as accent adaptation or phonetic convergence, is the tendency to unconsciously adopt the accent or speech patterns of those around us. This linguistic chameleon effect is not unique to individuals with ADHD, but it appears to be more pronounced and frequent in this population."
Essentially, when people have conversations, we're constantly "scanning" for information—not just the words we're absorbing, but the inflection and tone. "When we hear an accent, our brains automatically analyze and categorize the phonetic features, prosody, and intonation patterns," writes Neurolaunch. For most, this does result in copying the accent of the person with whom we're speaking. But those with ADHD might be more sensitive to auditory cues. This, "coupled with a reduced ability to filter out or inhibit the impulse to mimic…could potentially explain the increased tendency for accent mirroring."
While the article explains further research is needed, they distinctly state that, "Accent mirroring in individuals with ADHD often manifests as an unconscious mimicry of accents in social situations. This can range from subtle shifts in pronunciation to more noticeable changes in intonation and speech rhythm. For example, a person with ADHD might find themselves unconsciously adopting a Southern drawl when conversing with someone from Texas, even if they’ve never lived in the South themselves."
People are having their say online. On the subreddit r/ADHDWomen, a thread began: "Taking on accents is an ADHD thing?" The OP shares, "My whole life, I've picked up accents. I, myself, never noticed, but everyone around me would be like, 'Why are you talking like that??' It could be after I watched a show or movie with an accent or after I've traveled somewhere with a different accent than my 'normal.'
They continue, "Apparently, I pick it up fast, but it fades out slowly. Today... I'm scrolling Instagram, I watch a reel from a comedian couple (Darcy and Jeremy. IYKYK) about how Darcy (ADHD) picks up accents everywhere they go. It's called ADHD Mirroring??? And it's another way of masking."
(The OP is referring to Darcy Michaels and his husband Jeremy Baer, who are both touring comedians based in Canada.)
Hundreds of people on the Reddit thread alone seem to relate. One comments, "Omfg I've done this my whole life; I'll even pick up on the pauses/spaces when I'm talking to someone who is ESL—but English is my first language lol."
Sometimes, it can be a real issue for those around the chameleon. "I accidentally mimicked a waitress's weird laugh one time. As soon as she was out of earshot, my family started to reprimand me, but I was already like 'oh my god I don’t know why I did that, I feel so bad.'"
Many commenters on TikTok were shocked to find out this can be a sign of ADHD. One jokes, "Omg, yes, at a store the cashier was talking to me and she was French. She's like 'Oh are you French too? No, I'm not lol. I'm very east coast Canada."
And some people just embrace it and make it work for them. "I mirror their words or phrase! I’m 30. I realized I start calling everyone sweetie cause my manager does & I work at coffee shop."