Enter to win a $1,000 Grocery Gift Card and a personal message from Kristen Bell!

Shop
 Explore 

This son sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself. She got the last laugh.

Amazing work, mom.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

A collage of Dalton Ross .

This article originally appeared on 03.30.16

Dalton Ross wanted to make sure his family didn't miss him too badly while he was studying abroad in London.

To help them cope, the 22-year-old Tennessee native did what any selfless college student would do...

He sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself.

art, imaginative, artistic, family dynamics

The life-size cutout of Dalton Ross.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

"I thought maybe they'd put it in the living room corner until I got back to remember I exist," he explained about the cutout, which came with a short note: "You're welcome.”

But like any clever mom, Susan Talley couldn't just stash this amazing piece of work away when it arrived about two months ago.

Guess who’s coming to dinner.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

No, no — she had better plans in mind.

Talley decided the cardboard version of her son could be a great companion "while the real one is in Europe." So she brought him along with her to events, like basketball games ...

Can you spot cardboard Dalton in the stands?

Defense! Defense!

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... trips to the doctor's office ...

doctor visit, hilarious gags, connection

Hello doc.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... and sub sandwich runs.

sub sandwich, family pranks, photography

One meatball sub please.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

Fake Dalton celebrated Valentine's Day with a fellow inanimate object.

$Valentine\u2019s Day, inanimate object, dating$

The strange and uncomfortable.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

He enjoyed playing with a furry, four-legged friend in the sunshine.

Some complicated fetching.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

And he appreciated a good bedtime story, just like the rest of us.

Reading Dr. Seuss, “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!"

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

The photos of fake Dalton are spreading like wildfire.

Out and about for lunch.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

Without showing her son the photos first, Talley went ahead and uploaded them to Facebook. And after Dalton shared them on Imgur — explaining his mom "seems to be entertaining herself" while he's gone — the story sent the Internet into a buzzy frenzy.

"The attention is crazy," Ross told Upworthy, noting the story has gained so much traction that a restaurant featured in one of the photos, O'Charley's, sent the family a gift card.

"I hope my mom's holding up all right," he said. "It's awesome though.”

Fake Dalton has been hitting the batting cages...

batting cages, unique travel, fun activities

Batter up.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... taking in some nightlife...

Out on the town.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

... and celebrated Easter with his family.

Easter with the Ross family.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

Although the viral reaction to the photos has been a bit nuts, Ross isn't all that surprised his mom was up for a good laugh.

Out and about.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

"Oh yeah, my mom is very funny," he explained to Upworthy. And it's a good thing, too: Laughter can be a great tool in improving the quality of family dynamics and boosting a loved one's emotional health. (A student studying abroad should especially keep that in mind, considering being away from loved ones and familiarity can be tough.)

"We're a big family of jokesters."

Bravo, mom, for setting the bar very high ahead of April Fools' Day.

Let’s clean it up.

All photos courtesy of Dalton Ross, used with permission.

From Your Site Articles

family

Health

This Morning, I Didn't Know What A Binaural Soundscape Was. Now All I Want To Do Is Listen To Them.

The results are astounding.

Image via Pixabay.

A total mind expanding experience is a click away.

I found a hidden gem on the Internet this week: NPR has a Soundcloud set of "binaural soundscapes." Strap on your headphones — it's going to be a surreal ride.Important note: If you have hearing loss, this may not work well for you.

Maybe you don't know what a binaural recording is.

Basically, the deal is, you have two ears.

They are the width of your head apart. And there's a big lumpy meatball in the middle. So your ears hear different things. Then your brain processes these two distinct streams of information and uses them to position stuff in space. Standard stereo recording often uses a couple of mics, but it's not trying to position them in a way that mimics your ears.

Keep ReadingShow less

Science

Only 1% of all Americans get to experience this incredible sight.

It used to be something that everyone saw any evening when they walked out their door.

Photo by Warren Wong on Unsplash

When the light is getting in the way of the night.

Wow. I never thought about how rare this is before, but many people literally can go their whole lives without experiencing the vastness of space and their own smallness.

It used to be something that everyone saw any evening when they walked out their door.

It used to be that when you looked up at the night sky, you would see deep into the farthest reaches of space and time, but now...

Nope.

Keep ReadingShow less

Heroes

Want To Be Happy? You Only Have To Do 1 Thing. Over And Over.

How to encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children.

Photo by Tyler Nix on Unsplash

The sum is stronger than the individual parts.

Matthieu Ricard says that the way for all of us to live sustainably on this planet is to adopt a culture of thinking about each other. And not just the others who are here right now, but also people we'll never meet.

He tells us some stuff that you're probably tired of hearing. We're exhausting our planets resources. Humanity has completely screwed everything up on this planet.

But stick around because he's going to get crazy surprising.

This is not a speech about recycling.

He points out that our situation is even more serious than you might have known. We're rapidly exceeding the planetary boundaries that make Earth habitable.

Keep ReadingShow less

This son sent his mom a life-size cutout of himself. She got the last laugh.

Amazing work, mom.

Dalton Ross wanted to make sure his family didn't miss him too badly while he was studying abroad in London.

Can you spot cardboard Dalton in the stands?

... trips to the doctor's office ...

... and sub sandwich runs.

Fake Dalton celebrated Valentine's Day with a fellow inanimate object.

He enjoyed playing with a furry, four-legged friend in the sunshine.

And he appreciated a good bedtime story, just like the rest of us.

The photos of fake Dalton are spreading like wildfire.

Fake Dalton has been hitting the batting cages...

... taking in some nightlife...

... and celebrated Easter with his family.

Although the viral reaction to the photos has been a bit nuts, Ross isn't all that surprised his mom was up for a good laugh.

Unbelievable. 😂

Every parent has been there.

Every parent has been there.

Mom and blogger Danielle Silverstein made an "admission" on Facebook: "I really AM a hot-mess mom."

Near the end of the now super-viral post, Silverstein reaches an important realization.

The post has racked up thousands of shares and comments from other parents who want to say, "YES! THANK YOU!"

Kids were tougher then for a reason.

The results are astounding.

Basically, the deal is, you have two ears.

Recording artists have started building these crazy microphone setups that imitate the position and direction of your real ears.

It's like a window into other landscapes. It makes the world feel so close and small and familiar.

First stop: A regular day on a street in Tibet.

Next up, a stop in the Ecuadorean rain forest to hear the song of the orapendula. (It's a bird. I looked it up.)

Let's wrap up with a visit to Dzanga Bai, a clearing in the Central African Republic, where elephants gather as evening closes in.

For more magical journeys, check out the rest of NPR's Binaural Soundscapes.

It used to be something that everyone saw any evening when they walked out their door.

Wow. I never thought about how rare this is before, but many people literally can go their whole lives without experiencing the vastness of space and their own smallness.

Not anymore. We're lighting up our cities like never before.

Over 99% of Americans in the continental U.S. live in areas that are considered light polluted.

Are you scared of total darkness?

How to encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children.

But stick around because he's going to get crazy surprising.

And, let's be honest, it's easy not to feel crazy urgent about this, right?

When we consider how we treat our planet, when we're talking about big action, we're doing it because we'd like our kids and grandkids to not live in a post-apocalyptic hellscape.

But then he offers a solution.

An international survey found that the very most perfect predictor of happiness is the quality of human relationships.

But how do we encourage that impulse to grow within ourselves, our communities, and our children?