Heroes
We May Tell Our Kids That Life Isn't Fair, But We Should Actually Listen To Them Talk About Fairness
This isn't something we can do with every purchase, but we can certainly make an effort. It all adds up!
12.03.13
"That boy who emailed...his parents must be incredible."
Teacher starts period in front of class, turns into a lesson
Teachers are almost always teaching even when it's not in their lesson plan.
Those that were born to be teachers find teachable moments everywhere and one woman found herself in one of those moments. Though this one was likely just a bit more personal than she probably would've liked.
Emily Elizabeth posted a TikTok video about how she found herself in a predicament in front of her classroom full of 10 and 11-year-old kids. The teacher explained that she was noticing a lot of commotion and whispering among the little girls in her class while she was wearing white pants. After reminding the girls to stay on task, the whispering continued, prompting Emily to be more direct.
That's when one of the girls asked to speak with her privately dropping the bomb that no one that gets periods wants to hear in public.
"She goes, 'I'm sorry Ms. Emily, but I just want to let you know that I think you might have got your period,'" the teacher recalls.
But instead of freaking out or being flustered, Emily decided to swallow her embarrassment and use the moment as a teachable experience. She promptly told the concerned girls that it was fine and that she had a change of clothes that she could wear. Just before excusing herself, the boys noticed something was wrong so they curiously asked. Emily informed them that she had gotten her period and while she was annoyed, she was perfectly fine.
One of the boys even sent her an email double checking that she was okay in a less public way. The sweet reaction from her class warmed her heart and the hearts of viewers.
"That boy who emailed...his parents must be incredible," one commenter says.
"You set an excellent example! And to not hide it from the boys who asked because that would have spoken SO LOUDLY to the boys and girls about normalizing periods," another writes.
"The email, you sound like an amazing teacher with an amazing group of kids," someone says.
You can watch Emily tell the entire story below:
@emilyelizabeth.w Let’s normalise talking about periods for girls AND boys … trying to find the silver lining 😅 #fyp #melbourneteacher #teachersoftiktok #teacherlife
It took more than 2 bottles of nail polish and 20 hours to paint her nails!
Viewers can't stop watching as woman cuts two foot fingernails
There's something about seeing something out of the ordinary, be it a strange animal, an accident or even an argument between strangers. Humans are naturally curious beings and seeing a random argument between your neighbor and her teenage son will have some people outside taking their goldfish for a walk just to gawk.
So it's not surprising that thousands of viewers tuned in when Ayanna Williams, the Guinness World Record holder for the world's longest nails went to have them all cut off. Williams had her record breaking nails for 29 years but decided it was finally time to bid them adieu and the entire thing was filmed. It's a monumental moment for the record holder after having lived with the 24 foot nails for decades.
Most of us would simply need to grab a pair of fingernail clippers and get clipping, but for Williams the process was a bit more complicated.
The record holder couldn't just head to her nearest nail salon for a fresh manicure. She had to have her nails trimmed by Dr. Allison Readinger at Trinity Vista Dermatology, where the dermatologist used a special hand held circular saw. Williams disclosed the two foot nails were causing her joint pain and one of her thumbs was extremely tender so she was relieved to lose the weight of the nails. The nails are now on display at Ripley's Believe it or Not! Museum in Orlando, Florida.
Viewers couldn't look away from this re-shared video of Williams said goodbye to her long nails. Some comments were supportive while others...not so much.
"I’m so happy she was able to finally make this decision! I love it," one person writes.
"Wooww! It's a incredible it's been a 29 yrs," another says.
"Oh gosh so satisfying. Can't even have mine passed my finger tips. Ouf," someone exclaims.
According to Guinness World Records, Williams went through over two bottles of nail polish and gave up 20 hours of her time with ever nail polish change. If nothing else, cutting her nails will be a money saver and whether you support her nail growth or not, there's something satisfying about watching them be cut off.
Watch the captivating video below:
This sparked an important conversation about family responsibility.
A middle-aged woman holding a baby.
A story that recently went viral on Reddit’s AITA forum asks an important question: What is a parent’s role in taking care of their grandchildren? The story is even further complicated because the woman at the center of the controversy is a stepparent.
The woman, 38, met her husband Sam, 47, ten years ago, when his daughter, Leah, 25, was 15. Five years ago, the couple got married after Leah had moved out to go to college.
Leah’s mom passed away when she was 10.
Last year, Leah became pregnant, and she wanted to keep the baby, but her boyfriend didn’t. After the disagreement, the boyfriend broke up with her. This forced Leah to move back home because she couldn’t afford to be a single parent and live alone on a teacher’s salary.
Leah’s story is experienced by many young mothers who are facing difficulties. The father isn’t involved in the baby’s life as a caretaker or financially. Sadly, 33% of all children in the U.S. are born without their biological fathers living in the home.
The new mother is a teacher and can’t afford to live on her own with a child. A recent study found that out of the top 50 U.S. cities, Pittsburgh is the only one where a new teacher could afford rent.
The stressors of taking care of the baby made Leah realize she needed help.
“But once she had the baby around 4 months back, Leah seemed to realize having a baby is not the sunshine and rainbows she thought it was,” the woman wrote on Reddit. “She barely got any sleep during the last four months. All the while Sam was helping her with the baby while I did almost all chores myself.”
“Now her leave is ending. She did not want to leave the baby at daycare or with a nanny,” the woman continued. “Sam and I both work as well.”
Leah asked her stepmother if she would stay home with the baby. The stepmother said no because she never wanted to have a baby and she has a job. “I asked why Leah can't stay home with the baby herself,” the woman wrote. “She said how she was young and had to build a career. I said many people take breaks to raise kids, and she broke down crying about how she was so tired all the time being a mom and needed something else in her life too.”
A middle-aged woman with a baby.
via Pixabay
After the woman told her stepdaughter no, her husband pressured her to stay home with the baby. But she refused to give up her job to raise her stepdaughter’s child. “Leah said yesterday how she wished her mom was alive since she would have had her back. She said I didn't love her, and my husband is also mad at me,” the woman wrote. The woman asked the Reddit community if she was in the wrong for “refusing to help my stepdaughter with the baby,” and the community responded with rapturous support.
"[The woman] should tell her husband to knock it off and stop trying to pressure her into raising his daughter’s baby. If he wants a family member to look after her baby while she works, then he can do it," Heavy_Sand5228 wrote.
"This is Leah's baby that she alone chose to have. That doesn't obligate you to change YOUR life to suit her desires. The whole business of saying you don't love her because you won't quit your job to watch her baby is manipulative and messed up, and I'm shocked your husband is siding with her," SupremeCourtJust-a** added.
Leah and many women like her are in this situation because, in many places, teachers are underpaid, rent is high, and not all dads pay child support, even those required by law.
Another commenter noted that the baby is much more the father’s responsibility than the stepmother's. "To add, Leah should consider seeking child support from her ex. Her kid should be getting that money," Obiterdicta wrote.
Their reunion was nothing short of a miracle.
Such a sweet story
Families might get displaced for a number of reasons. But luckily, advancements in technology make it more possible for those separated from their loved ones to find them once again and reclaim a sense of peace.
Good Morning America first shared the story of Mary Butler, who (with the help of DNA testing through My Heritage) was able to reunite her mother Bobbi Gambrell with siblings she had lost contact with 65 years ago, after being placed for adoption as a child.
In a tearful TikTok video, Butler shared how finding out that she had aunties, uncles and cousins was a “prayer being answered.”
The discovery was an equally emotional one for Gambrell, who was at a loss for words during a video phone call with Randalph, the baby brother she had never really known.
@marysmoving literally found my people #ancestry#myheritage #23andme ♬ original sound - marysmoving
“I can’t right now, baby,” she says in the clip, tears streaming down her face. “It’s just too much.”
My Heritage even set up an in-person family reunion. It was made instantly clear that even though they might have never met, they were clearly a family, especially when it came to their shared love of dancing.
@marysmoving big shout out to #myheritage for making this happen. our time together went by so quickly. we planned for our official family reunion for July 2024! #family #reunited#reunion#adopted ♬ original sound - marysmoving
“Family is important. It gives you a sense of belonging,” Butler reflected with GMA. “It gives you a sense of identity.” This is something that’s become even more important to her as she has begun growing a family of her own.
Watch the full story below:
Her post has been shared more than 174,000 times.
Samantha Moriá Reynolds's advice on sick children.
It's cold and flu seasons, folks. During this time of year, we're all on a mission to avoid the demon viruses that threaten to invade our bodies and wage Armageddon on our immune systems.
But no matter how much vitamin C we consume or how diligently we wash our hands, we still have to rely on others to be smart about exposing people to their sick germs.
And that goes doubly for kids, who inexplicably do things like lick their own palms and rub communal crayons under their noses.
That's why a mom's recent Facebook post about keeping kids home when they have a fever has been shared more than 170,000 times. Samantha Moriá Reynolds shared a photo of a thermometer with a temperature of 101.4 with the following message:
This morning, Sam woke up and noticed her son wasn't feeling well.
Sam took her son's temperature, and wow! A fever.
Sam gave her son Tylenol and then...
Sam did NOT send her son to school.
Even after the fever went down a couple hours later, Sam did NOT send her son to school.
Sam missed work knowing that the well-being of her son and the kids who attend his school is more important than work missed.
Sam's son was invited to THREE birthday parties over the weekend. Sam's son has been so excited to go, but he will unfortunately also have to miss them because Sam's son is SICK. Sam knows passing along a sickness would not be a great birthday gift regardless of how bummed her son may be.
Sam knows her son is still contagious until he is fever-free, WITHOUT medication, for 24 hours. If Sam's son is running a fever at 7am on Sunday, Sam's son will also not be attending school on Monday.
Be. Like. Sam.
Some parents will give their kids fever-reducing medication, the fever will go down, the kid will feel a bit better, and off they go to school. But fever meds like Tylenol don't do anything to kill the virus that's infecting the kid's body. They just mask the symptoms of the illness and provide some relief to a miserable kiddo. If a fever goes down with medication, the child is still sick and still contagious.
The same goes for adults who try to tough it out by popping a Dayquil before heading off to work. If you want to infect your coworkers and make them hate you, keep doing that.
Granted, some parents may have a hard time finding childcare or taking time off work, and there's a lot to be said for employers being understanding and granting leave to care for sick children. Our whole society needs to work together on this front to make sure people don't feel like they have no choice but to send a sick kid to school. But that starts with parents insisting that their feverish kids stay home from school until they are no longer a threat to other people's health and well-being.
The coronavirus outbreak keeps making headlines and the mounting death numbers from it are making people nervous, but the truth is that the plain old flu already kills thousands of Americans every single year. This season, more than 8,000 people have already died from flu and flu complications, and we're still in the thick of the season.
The best way to keep illness from spreading is to stay away from other people when you are sick and to keep sick kids home until they are fever-free for 24 hours.
Be like Sam. Keep sick kids home. It takes a village to keep us all healthy.
This article originally appeared on 01.30.20
His response was so wholesome.
Baby Cora bears a striking resemblance to actor Woody Harrelson.
We can all get a little fascinated by doppelgängers and it's fun to find people who look alike. But what do you do when your baby girl looks uncannily like a famous middle-aged man?
Mom Dani Grier Mulvenna shared a photo of her infant daughter Cora side by side with a photo of Woody Harrelson on Twitter, with the caption "Ok but how does our daughter look like Woody Harrelson." The resemblance truly is remarkable, and the tweet quickly racked up hundreds of thousands of likes, shares and replies.
Naturally, the jokes about Harrelson being the baby's secret father came next, but then Harrelson himself got wind of it.
The actor shared a screenshot of Mulvenna's tweet on his Instagram page and included a delightful little poem he called "Ode to Cora."
\u201cOk but how does our daughter look like Woody Harreslon\u201d— Dani Grier Mulvenna (@Dani Grier Mulvenna) 1659529434
You're an adorable child
Flattered to be compared
You have a wonderful smile
I just wish I had your hair
How adorable and wholesome is that? Not only did he acknowledge his look-alike, but he even made a self-deprecating joke about his receding hairline.
People gushed in the comments and Mulvenna shared how tickled her daughter will be someday by the connection.
"You've made our day ❤️ can't wait to show her this when she's older, you have another fan for life xxx," she wrote.
Mulvenna also shared on Twitter that her daughter doesn't always look like Woody Harrelson, but when she does, she really does.
\u201cCora says, thank you all so much for the likes and retweets and also that she doesn't always look like Woody Harreslon, it's just that when she does...she really really does xxx\u201d— Dani Grier Mulvenna (@Dani Grier Mulvenna) 1659529434
What a cutie. What's hilarious is that sweet little Cora has no clue about any of this excitement and she won't for many more years. What a fun story her parents will be able to share with her.
Social media has created a world where people can connect in ways they never would have before. When these platforms are so often used for negative means, it's lovely to see something so sweet and pure come out of them.
This article originally appeared on 08.05.22