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Women on TikTok are standing in for adult children without supportive parents

Sometimes you just need a mom’s support.

parental estrangement; LGBTQ; mental health
RONDAE Productions from Pexels via Canva

Women on TikTok are standing in for adult children without supportive parents.

When people get married they generally imagine their family being present. Dads walking them down the aisle, moms crying in the front row, pictures of their parents beaming with pride in official wedding photos. You know, the whole shebang. Sadly, not everyone gets to experience that. But don't worry as social media is helping adult children have a stand-in parent there for their big day.

Several creators on TikTok have offered to be stand-in parents for people who were disowned by their parents or whose parents had passed away. Everyone's favorite mom Mama Tot recently stood in for one of her tater tots' weddings, making the drive from her home state of Alabama up to North Carolina.

Another creator on TikTok is currently making plans to attend her now social media "adopted" son's wedding after meeting them for the first time recently. Upworthy caught up with Rosie, whose TikTok handle is north_omaha_cat_lady, to find out what spurred such a kind gesture.

Rosie spends most of her time working with children, but when she's not working she's creating content on TikTok supporting marginalized communities. The creator said that she's had an uptick in people reaching out to her telling her that their parents don't approve of their "lifestyle choices" and have disowned them. She said, "I don’t have kids and I just don’t understand how anyone could throw away a child."

Rosie went on to explain that, "even Jeffery Dahmer's father came to every hearing so I don't understand this." Seeing someone hurting isn't something Rosie could just ignore, so when she came across Noah's video saying their mom wasn't going to come to their wedding, she stepped up. Noah posted a video explaining that their mom wasn't coming to their wedding as their mother would, "move mountains for everyone but me...the black sheep. The gay disgrace...."

Amazingly, Rosie reached out to Noah via video and said that she would happily stand-in as their mother for their wedding day. I'd say the rest was history, but the two hadn't met at the time of the offer. Turns out Noah and Rosie live in the same city and in just a few short videos and over a bite to eat, Noah gained a mom and Rosie gained a son.

In the comments of Noah's original video, there were multiple women offering to stand-in as their mother for the big day, including Mama Tot. But it was Rosie who was able to meet with Noah and their fiancee to discuss plans. Rosie told Upworthy that a wedding photographer from South Africa also reached out offering free services to the couple.

The internet always gets such a bad reputation for a lot of things that are wrong in the world, but this part of the internet is beautiful. People coming together to fill voids in other people's lives, all to make a stranger's special day better.

Rosie's one piece of advice she hopes people take away from this situation is, "Family is not defined by blood, family is who loves you. If your family disowns you, find a new family. There are people out there that do want to connect and do want to support people."

Take it from Rosie, people do want to support you. Sometimes the family we choose is the family that matters most.

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