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People are applauding the dad who bought a Mustang for his teenage son living with cancer

“Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months of life just to be able to drive this.”

via Vauxford/Wikimedia Commons

A 2020 Mustang.


Many parents swear that a child’s first car should be a “beater.” First, it teaches them to have something to strive for in life. Second, the kid will probably put some nicks and scratches on the car, so it’s best to start with something where no one will care. Third, the insurance will be cheaper.

Finally, a kid should have to earn having nice things and starting them off with a brand new Mercedes isn’t going to instill much work ethic.

Even though a large number of parents say a teen’s first car should be a clunker, many are applauding Joe Tegerdine, a father in Springville, Utah, and his wife Kerry for buying their son Joseph, 18, a 330-horsepower 2020 Ford Mustang.

Unfortunately, Joseph has osteosarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer and has already outlived his prognosis.

Joseph was working at Sodalicious in hopes of saving up enough money for a Mustang, but time was running out for him to reach his goal and still have the time to enjoy the car. His father shared the reason why he bought the car on X, where it received nearly 14 million views. “For those wondering why I’d buy my 18yr old son a 330hp Mustang, well, he’s been given months to live and can’t work long enough to buy one himself,” the father wrote. “His comment on the way home, ‘Dad, I’m going to squeeze a few extra months of life just to be able to drive this.’

“Once he got his terminal diagnosis, I spoke to my wife and said there was no way he has enough time to save money – so I went out and bought him [the Mustang],” he said, according to SWNS.

“He was so excited. He told me he wants to squeeze out a few extra months of life to drive the car,” Joe continued. “He really wants to live life to the fullest. He is not interested in spending the last few months hooked up to machines.”

In 2019, when Joseph was 13, he began complaining of pains in his knee and it made sense because he was an active athlete who played football and ran track and field. When he went in for an X-ray and then an MRI, he was diagnosed with bone cancer and started chemotherapy 10 days later. In 2022, Joseph would undergo a leg amputation and it was found the cancer spread to his lungs and hip.

Joseph’s uncertain future has brought out the best in the family, inspiring them to make the most out of their time with their son. Their commitment is a reminder for all of us to appreciate the people we have in our lives because you never know what the future holds.

"When my son was first diagnosed, I had to make a decision. Either curse God and die or try to make the best of a really bad situation. With the perspective of what it would be like to experience sudden loss, I decided to be grateful. Grateful that we’ve had the 18 years to build memories and enjoy him," Joe wrote on X. "Even now, with the only treatments left to prolong life and manage pain, I’m thankful he’s still with us, squeezing out the best that life can offer under less than ideal circumstances. My heart is still broken, but I know it could be a lot worse."

Recently, the family has been making the most of their time with trips to Tokyo, Japan, Los Angeles to see Taylor Swift and Florida to swim with dolphins. After Joe’s tweet about the Mustang went viral, Ford CEO Jim Farley invited Joseph to visit Ford Performance Racing School, which he plans to attend in April.

"If you look at my day-to-day life, it's about as ideal as it gets. I've got my dream car. I have a family that I love, a girlfriend that I hang out with all the time and that I love, I play piano, which I love, I read books that I personally pick on topics that interest me. It's fantastic," Joseph told Today.com. "Feeling fulfilled in the future is the hard part," he said. "But I've managed to make my day-to-day life fulfilling for however long I have."

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A dad's Facebook post is going viral for the way he handled his daughter's first period

Facebook / Maverick Austin

Your first period is always a weird one. You know it's going to happen eventually, but you're not always expecting it. One day, everything is normal, then BAM. Puberty hits you in a way you can't ignore.

One dad is getting attention for the incredibly supportive way he handled his daughter's first period. "So today I got 'The Call,'" Maverick Austin started out a Facebook post that has now gone viral.

The only thing is, Austin didn't know he got "the call." His 13-year-old thought she pooped her pants. At that age, your body makes no sense whatsoever. It's a miracle every time you even think you know what's going on.

Austin went over to the school to help her out. "So I rush to school take her a change of undies, put the old ones in a bag and rush back to my conference call and threw the bag in the kitchen trash," he said.

RELATED: Mansplainer doesn't understand tampons or periods and is getting dragged to hell for it

"A few hours later, she calls and I had to put a very important work meeting I'm hosting on hold which I never do. She says, 'Dad it happened again.' I'm confused and very annoyed because I'm super busy. I yell 'just wipe your butt better then stuff toilet paper in the back of your pants and I'll have to call you back in an hour!'"

Austin eventually figured out what was up, then put everything on hold so he could support his daughter during this milestone. "I interrupt my project meeting and explain to my banking colleagues that I'm VERY sorry but I have to go! I'm racing to the school while calling them telling the nurse to go find my child! [I'm] speeding and having a panic attack because my child called me for help and I just left her to die on the battlefield!" he wrote.

"I run into the office and she's standing there very calmly looking at me and says, 'Dad, I officially started my first . . .' and I stopped her and said, 'I already know Avi . . . it hit me a few minutes after I hung up on you.' The stress of raising a daughter!"

RELATED: These awesome teens take tampons to school to help their friends in case of an 'emergency'

Austin's stellar parenting skills don't end there. "Later on she asked, 'Don't I get something like when a tooth falls out?' So I snuck off to the store and when she got out of the shower I told her the period fairy brought her something."

Can we please start the Period Fairy as a thing, now? It would really take the edge off of realizing you're now doomed to periods once a month every month - and all that goes with it - until what feels like the end of time.

It's commendable that this dad was there for his daughter when she needed him. Entering womanhood can be wonky, but it's easier when you have supportive parents to lean on. We might have a nominee for the Dad of the Year Award.

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A dad's heartbreaking list of things he learned after his son passed is a must-read.

Richard Pringle, a dad from England, thought he'd have more time with his son, Hughie.

Hughie had a serious brain condition his doctors considered manageable. He was supposed to be fine.

Tragically, the odds struck for the worst and Hughie, 3 years old at the time, suffered a brain hemorrhage last year that he did not survive.

It's a heartbreaking story, but Hughie's memory lives on. Pringle says he's "realised more than ever how precious life is."

He wanted to help other parents appreciate the fleeting and fragile nature of life. So Pringle came up with 10 things he's learned since his son passed.

"I was actually putting my little girl to bed one night and lying with her. It was then I wrote it," he says. "All things I've been thinking about and it just flowed."

The list reads as fond memories of a short life lived to the fullest. Yet it also serves as a powerful wake up call for any of us who might be missing out on the little moments that matter most.

"You can never ever kiss and love too much," Pringle writes. "You always have time. Stop what you're doing and play, even if it's just for a minute. Nothing's that important that it can't wait."

"Make boring things fun," he adds. "Be silly, tell jokes, laugh, smile, and enjoy yourselves. They're only chores if you treat them like that. Life is too short not to have fun."

You can read the full list in his original post:

❤️❤️The 10 Most Important Things I've Learnt Since Losing My Son 🙏1. You can never ever kiss and love too much. 2....

Posted by Richard Pringle on Wednesday, August 23, 2017

The post went viral and struck a nerve with parents everywhere who saw themselves in Pringle's words.

We're all tired from work, stressed from thinking about bills, and constantly scanning the house for what needs to be cleaned or fixed up. It becomes so easy to miss what's right in front of us — moments with our kids that can never be recreated. All the other stuff? It can wait.

It's not just for parents. Everyone could stand to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, a little more often.

"There's beauty in the simple things," Pringle says. "Things that often within our busy destructed lives go unnoticed. There's real beauty in simplicity and I feel we all need to realize this."

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A comedian shuts down a sexist heckler who, ironically, brought his daughters to the show.

He probably shouldn't have said that.

Heckling can be a dangerous sport. Especially when you try it with comedian Steve Hofstetter.

A sexist heckler recently learned this the hard way in front of his own daughters.

It started when Steve told a joke about why heckling is a bad choice.

"If you get upset with me and want to confront me after the show, don't do that," he warned.

Steve's set involved riffing about sexist dudes who yell about women covering sports events.

Steve took a moment to make the bold statement that women are people who, you know, are totally qualified to do jobs and stuff.

He shared a story about how a broadcaster named Jessica Mendozabecame the first woman analyst in history to cover a post-season Major League Baseball game, making the astute and frustrating point that it took until 2015 to make that happen.

Mendoza sharing her expert commentary that dudebros just can't handle. Photo by Maxx Wolfson/Getty Images.

Steve followed this with his best imitation of all the dudes who were freaking out online because a woman dared to exist and have talent and be hired to do her job.

"There were so many men on Twitter just being like, 'She doesn't know what she's talking about, she's never played professional baseball.'"

"I'm like, yoooou've never played professional baseball. You're in your mother's basement,'" Steve says.

He then pointed out Mendoza's qualifications. Things like winning an Olympic gold medal and a World Championship, graduating from Stanford, and leading her team with a .495 average on the tour leading up to the 2008 Olympics. Not to mention spending three years working her way up to being a full time analyst for ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.

And that's when the heckler made a poor choice: He heckled.

The heckler yelled, "NEXT!"

Apparently he was bored by jokes that also happened to praise women with skills and talents for being good at their jobs.

Steve then lit into him and discovered an ironic thing: The heckler had brought his daughters.

And they were horribly embarrassed.

And then this happened.


Then he said, "That's f*!ked up, dude."

After that, it just got better.

Steve, being the consummate professional flipped it around and brought back the jokes:

We're all carriers. There could even be a woman in your family.

After the set was over, the heckler's family and Steve bonded over their shared disappointment.

Steve left this update in his YouTube channel comments.

That seems like a home run for sanity to me.

Watch Steve's anti-heckling, feminism 101 class here:

As Steve says, in his own words, before the video of the interaction (which you can watch below): "What follows is probably the angriest I've ever been on stage."

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