Ms. B, a 42-year-old teacher in Minnesota, left school on a Friday for a weekend trip to Mexico. When she got back she found emails from some of her students’ parents waiting for her. She wasn’t expecting much. She posted a video reading them on her Instagram page, @tlcwithmsb, and it has since been viewed more than 2 million times.
Minnesota teacher is not so vanilla
The first one started warmly — “I hope you are having a great time relaxing, you deserve it” — and then pivoted to business. The parent had heard Ms. B was in Mexico and had one request: real vanilla. Not the kind you get in Minnesota. The good stuff. She offered to Venmo her for the trouble.
Ms. B couldn’t fulfill the order. Her school district had blocked her email access during the vacation, so she didn’t see the message until she was already home.
The second email was from a parent concerned about sunburns. She had a home remedy, she explained. She would make it herself. Ms. B just had to come pick it up. “That’s seriously so sweet… I might actually try it,” Ms. B said in her video.
Parents made sure she wasn’t stranded
The third came after Ms. B had posted a separate video in a mild panic. She’d accidentally booked her return flight for Monday instead of Sunday and couldn’t easily afford to rebook. A parent watched it and immediately emailed with a solution: Ms. B was welcome to stay at her second cousin’s uncle’s place.
Ms. B said in her video that parents like these don’t get enough credit. The comment section agreed, filling up with people who said the emails were a perfect picture of what the right kind of school community actually looks like — the kind where the parents are as invested in their teacher as they are in their kids.
The vanilla, for what it’s worth, remains undelivered.
