+
upworthy

today show

Keira Burton/ Pexels

Parents today spend far more time with their kids than previous generations.

Are we placing unrealistic expectations on ourselves as parents to entertain our children every second of every day? This is what a mom on Instagram purports in a clip that’s resonated deeply with fellow parents who feel stretched to the breaking point.

“I just spent a weekend with my kids who are 6, 4 and 2-years-old,” begins working mom Jen B who goes by the 8thdayformomonly. “And the amount of time I spent setting up activities, cleaning up activities, participating in activities is so much.”

In a video viewed over 35 thousand times, she says she doesn’t recall her parents ever putting in this much time. “I feel like the standard that we are holding ourselves to as parents to entertain our children is so much higher than it was when we were kids.

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Kathy Najimy’s 1993 interview for 'Hocus Pocus' is going viral for the sweetest reason

'I just feel supportive of all groups, whether they’re women’s groups or gay groups or racial groups, and I know that there are groups of witches out there.'

Kathy Najimy/Wikicommons/Hocus Pocus/Wikicommons

Kathy Najimy's 1993 interview for "Hocus Pocus" is going viral.

If you grew up in the '90s, chances are you watched the original "Hocus Pocus" and declared yourself one of the three Sanderson sisters. But did you know that Kathy Najimy was committed to being respectful of practicing witches when she first read the script for the movie in the early '90s? Me either. A resurfaced video of Najimy has recently gone viral on TikTok showing an interview by Katie Couric on the "Today" show. In the video, Najimy expresses the importance of being respectful of other people, cultures and things she may not understand, including practicing witches.

Keep ReadingShow less
via Pixabay

Lucky baby gets the most caring godmother.

It’s a little funny that there are people who make tremendous differences in our lives that we never speak to again when their job is done. People in the healthcare profession regularly save people’s lives and then, after we thank them, we're likely to never see them again.

That’s why this story is so touching. A family appreciated the work of a NICU nurse so much, they asked her to be part of the family.

Good Morning America reports that when Austyn Evans was pregnant with her son Conrad, she and her husband, Branden, learned that he had a rare birth defect known as lower urinary tract obstructions. The defect can be life-threatening, so Austyn and Branden moved from Florida to Houston in her third trimester so she and Conrad could be cared for at Texas Children's Hospital.

"It's a very bad diagnosis to get," Austyn told Good Morning America. “A lot of these kids do not survive past zero or they just survive a few days past birth."

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Neighbors rally to throw an epic early Halloween party for a boy with terminal cancer

Nearly 1,000 people showed up to make sure it was a lasting positive memory.

Photo by Rohan Reddy on Unsplash

Halloween should be a time of pure joy for kids.

It’s not every day that an act of kindness looks like a parade of witches, zombies and monsters. But for the Hurdakis family, it’s one they’ll likely never forget.

According to CBC, 5-year-old Alexandros Hurdakis had undergone surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation to fight ependymoma (a brain tumor that forms in the brain or spinal cord) for most of his young life. On top of these intense and expensive therapies, Alex uses a tracheostomy tube to breathe and eats with a gastrostomy tube. Despite his challenges, nothing stops him from “lighting up a room.”

Though the treatments did help, eventually his tumor grew back, and his parents, Nick and Kira, finally received the message they had been dreading—the cancer was now terminal. The family’s GoFundMe page shared on Sept. 8 that doctors expected them to lose Alex “within a week.”

Alex’s heartfelt wish was to celebrate Halloween by seeing the monsters at the haunted house in Niagara Falls. Though doctors said Alex would have to stay close to home, the entire community stepped up to bring Halloween to him..

Keep ReadingShow less