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A toddler pretends to be a doctor with her doll.

Kids say the darndest things. And sometimes, what they say is truly, brilliantly bizarre. It's too bad we can't go back in time to recall what kind of fun madness circled through our minds as children, with our synapses firing on all cylinders. Just the role-playing alone could take hours, exclaiming, "I'm a kitten! I'm a princess! I'm a doctor!" Our bodies might have been small, but our minds were truly wonderlands.

Speaking of doctors, comedian and mother Kelly Vrooman (@Kellyvrooms on TikTok) has been posting hilarious clips reenacting the nutty things her toddlers say as if their ideas were totally sensible. (And who's to say they aren't?)

In one such clip, she acts out a story as originally told by her four-year-old pretending to be a doctor with "very bad news."


@kellyvrooms

Dramatically acting out real things. My four-year-old says. For better or worse, I lick a rock in this one. #parenting #motherhood #comedyvideo #humor #momsoftiktok #parentsoftiktok

The clip begins with Kelly sheepishly walking around with a giant pink plastic ring on her finger, reminiscent of a prize one might win at an arcade. She declares, "I'm wearing a ring because…I'm a girl T-Rex."

It then cuts to her wearing a stethoscope and running to the camera, while theatrical music underscores her every move. "You have blood coming out your skin," she says dramatically. "I'm your doctor, let me look in your ear." She "checks" the ear and forlornly reveals, "You have a broken arm. And you're gonna have to wear a cast. And never move it again."

doctor, roleplay, stethoscope, kids, gifTeddy Bear doctor uses a stethoscope on a cat.Giphy

She waits a beat, and as if she'd completely forgotten her last sentence, says, "I'm gonna go check on something." But before she gets up, all of a sudden, she's holding a baby doll. "But you take care of your baby. Please! It's a very…born…baby." She then proceeds to immediately chuck said baby off to the side.

baby, doll, roleplaying, toys, kidsA baby doll with a pink hat lies on the floor.pxhere.com

She stands up and walks to a door before turning back with an intense stare. "Wanna go on a trip with me? I'm going to…Pennsylvania." The music swells. And just like that, as though the entire conversation never existed, we now see Kelly outside holding up a huge rock. "I just want to eat a real rock," she says, and then comes the big dramatic ending. She licks the rock…ya know, like one does.

This clip alone has over half a million likes and 4,000 comments, full of support and stories about bizarre things viewers' own kids have said—and some of them were equally as hilarious. One TikToker writes, " I throw my patients to the side when I think about Pennsylvania, too!" Another is thrilled that they're seemingly not alone. "LMAO. This lets me know my child is not broken." A few commenters insist the reenactment reminds them of the TV show Grey's Anatomy.

And if that wasn't all exciting enough, an actual nurse backed up the diagnosis. " So uh, I’m not a doctor or anything, however, I am a nurse practitioner and well…that assessment was on point. I will be changing the way I perform assessments from now on."

Kelly has lots of similar and equally adorable posts, including a recent one where her three-year-old makes up a story about a dog becoming a cat. In a different clip another child shares this bit of wisdom: "We are all farm animals. You came to a farm. And you're a chicken."

@kellyvrooms

You’re a chicken! Kids give the best excuses and insults, so take notes. #excuses #yoga #funparenting #parentinghumor #momhumor #momsofpreschoolers #momsoftoddlers #actingchallenge

Wiser words may never have been uttered. Leave it to a five-year-old.

While the coronavirus pandemic is undeniably a devastating global crisis, it's also an unprecedented opportunity. A chance for humanity to take a pause. A chance for us to step back and examine the world we've built. A chance to decide if what we have to look back on is really the "normal" we want to return to.

This idea of reimagining normal is explored through a child's bedtime story in the now viral video called "The Great Realisation." Released on YouTube on April 29 by a new channel called Probably Tomfoolery, the video goes through four minutes of rhyming poetry that outlines where we were before the pandemic and where we end up in the future.


The Great Realisationyoutu.be

The story is profound, beautiful, and most importantly, hopeful. It gives fulfilment to the desire so any of us have to not return to the normal that was, but to build a new normal that befits humanity true potential. And it does so in a way that doesn't preach or point fingers, but rather pushes us to think about what we want the world to look like on the other side of this pandemic.

Definitely worth four minutes of your time.

Libby Scott's mom Kym said her 10-year-old daughter "hardly ever" would chose to read or write.

Libby has autism, and her mom said part of the symptoms include rarely reading or writing.

Photo courtesy Kym Scott.


So when Kym saw that Libby had written a fictional short story, she wanted to rally support for her.

She took to Twitter to share the story, titled "The Life of a Perfectionist."

In just a few hundred words, Libby describes a fictional character's struggle to get through her day and the difficult interactions she has with strangers who aren't aware of her condition or how to interact with her.

"I notice that my candles are in the wrong order; the cleaner must've done it," the character says. "I think to myself I don't want to get up as I am so comfortable. I reluctantly climb out of bed to adjust my candles."

Libby's character finds comfort in a song until she becomes upset by the word count and reaches out to Taylor Swift.

"The next morning I realise my favourite song doesn't have exactly 100 words, it has 98. My heart stops," she writes. "A few hours later I find myself writing to the singer telling her how I felt. I got a reply from her saying 'I am sorry but I cannot change the lyrics of my song, lots of love Taylor Swift.'"

Through this fictional character, Libby discovered a way to explain a part of her own experience having autism.

And Twitter users swiftly responded with praise. What started as a simple gesture of support quickly went viral. In less than 48 hours, more than 40,000 people had liked Kym's tweet and nearly 20,000 had retweeted it.

"I had no idea my little bit of writing would go so far, but I’m really excited and pleased," Libby says. "Especially if it helps people see a different viewpoint of autism and if it can help them understand a family member better."

Alan Gardner, a TV presenter in the U.K. with autism, had some simple and poignant praise for how Libby was helping others.

Children's author Ann Cleeves chimed in as well with some words of support that would mean a lot to any writer, let alone a 10-year-old putting her work out into the world for the first time.

Libby even received praise from the head of Condé Nast International, one of the most powerful publishing operations in the world.

Kym posted a second story from Libby and even helped her create her own Twitter account.

Storytelling is one of our most powerful tools for better understanding one another.

By sharing her writing, Libby is building bridges of understanding and empathy with others.

"For too long autism has been misunderstood and autistic people made to try to fit in, which adds hugely to their anxiety," Kym says. "The most important thing we can do for autistic people in my opinion is stop trying to make them fit into a neurotypical world and to allow and encourage them to be their very best autistic selves."

Libby on the right. Photo courtesy of Kym Scott.

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"I’m a very sad man now that she’s gone," Leroy explained. He'd been at his wife's side the moment she died of a heart attack. "I wish I could have saved her."

Leroy, a U.S. veteran, said he'd been doing well staying sober up until that tragedy struck a few months ago. Now he's back on the streets of New Orleans, once again battling alcoholism and homelessness.

Photo courtesy of Justin Doering/Fifty Sandwiches.


"I don’t have anything from her, no pictures, nothing," he said. "[Her] landlord set everything out on the sidewalk and thieves took it all."

Leroy's story is one of many featured by Fifty Sandwiches, a series documenting people experiencing homelessness across the country through stories and photos.

The project was created by Justin Doering, a recent college graduate from Idaho, who raised enough funds on Kickstarter last year to travel solo coast to coast in his van. 34 states and 14,000 miles later, Doering had photographed 78 homeless people and heard their stories.

Photo courtesy of Justin Doering/Fifty Sandwiches.

While traveling, Doering found participants on the streets, in recovery programs, and staying in shelters. He shared meals with them, and in turn, they shared their stories.

Here are five people Doering spoke to during his travels:

1. Stephanie, a 25-year-old living in Texas, who simply wants to be understood.

"I became homeless when I lost my father in 2009 to cancer," she told him. "I was really close with him and that hurt a lot."

Photo courtesy of Justin Doering/Fifty Sandwiches.

"[My dog] is for my Autism. I have high-functioning Autism on the Asperger’s side of the spectrum. It affects your socialization skills, but it affects me mostly emotionally.
***
I wish people would be more understanding to be able to help people like us. All they really say to us is to go get a job. That doesn’t help us. Most job places won’t give us work."

2. Lee, an artist in Venice Beach, California, who speaks out for social justice.

"If we continue to hate each other over skin color, the world will fucking crumble," Lee told Doering. "They say be the change that you want to see. That’s what I’m trying to do."

Photo courtesy of Justin Doering/Fifty Sandwiches.

"People are like ‘I love your hair,’ ‘I love your outfit,' if that’s what you love then what do you really love? When people ask me how I am in the morning, do they really want to know?"

3. Ian from Oregon, who's fighting to get past a turbulent childhood and a family that hadn't accepted him.

"I had a home but I was worried because I was insecure with my own sexuality," Ian said. "I had an idea in my head that there was pressure on me to have a wife and kids. I realized I was homosexual when I was younger but I suppressed a lot of it."

Photo courtesy of Justin Doering/Fifty Sandwiches.

"In my Christian family, I was raised with this idea that I was bad, morally wrong, and that lead me to think I had something seriously wrong with me psychologically. What is so wrong [with] me and why didn’t I think like the rest of my family?"

4. Sheila from Sacramento, who was motivated to turn her life around after living through the devastating death of her dog.

"As we drove to the river and I saw where the smoke was, I already knew," she said. "It was my [homeless] camp. It was my [dog] JJ. Two years of being on the river, and the only days I tie him up there is a fire."

Photo courtesy of Justin Doering/Fifty Sandwiches.

"It had to take my dogs death to realize I didn’t want to be homeless anymore. Cause it could’ve been me.
***
At Saint John’s, I’m six months and eight days clean and sober. It’s a wonderful feeling. It’s an amazing feeling. ... When I move on from here, I’m going to the pound and getting another rescue dog too."

5. Wendell in Atlanta, Georgia, who's learning how to live with a mental illness.

"I have a history of bipolar depression," Wendell explained. "I can’t use that as an excuse [for abusing drugs], I can’t blame anything. ... Bipolar depression is like being down in the pits and there’s no way to get out."

Photo courtesy of Justin Doering/Fifty Sandwiches.

"I had an abusive childhood. I grew up without a father and guys around the neighborhood knew that and took advantage of it. I was beaten up. I was molested. That was just what ‘growing up’ was for me. ... I’ve been clean six months now. I’m taking it one day at a time. I’m back in my own family again, I’m speaking with my kids. That gives me a lot of encouragement."

"Each interview left me in awe of their story," Doering says, a reminder why every individual voice matters.

Having been interested in the issue for years, the 22-year-old thought he understood the complexities of homelessness relatively well. But after speaking to dozens of folks from a wide variety of backgrounds and reasons for ending up without a home, he realized he couldn't possibly "capture a collective face to homelessness" from just one trip across the country.

"Each story was far too distinct from one another to categorize as an entire subset of the culture," he says. And that's the whole point: People experiencing homelessness can't be boxed into a few stereotypes; they're as diverse and deserving of our love and support as anyone else.

He hopes Fifty Sandwiches helps close "the gap between the perception and the reality of homelessness." After all, no one should be defined by their housing situation, and most of the people he talked to didn't start out homeless. "I felt it would be important to share their stories and give a voice to a population whose cries often go unheard," Doering says.

"I ended every single interview asking the question, 'If you could give any advice to the public in their treatment of homeless people, what would it be?'" Doering explains. "The overwhelming response was along the lines of, 'Treat us like we are people.'"

You can read more stories and learn about Fifty Sandwiches on the project's website.