We've all heard of and cringed over stories about those parents who will defend their precious, perfect children who can literally do no wrong, often through teachers and principals recounting classroom incidents or fellow parents talking about their children's bullies.
TikToker Carey (@careymitchh) is no such delusional parent. Rather, she's one of the parents working to hold her children accountable, no matter what.
Even when she realized racist ideals had snuck into her home.
Looking deeply frustrated, Carey recounted her experience of discovering what her son had said to his peer.
"My son got accused of calling a little Black girl out of her name on the school bus."
"This day that this happened was a normal day for me. I'm sitting at home, kids get off the bus, we're doing our normal evening routine, and all of a sudden, I get a phone call from an aunt, saying that her niece got off the bus crying, because my son called her niece out of her name when he got off the bus, because she was Black."
"'Not my son. Ain't no way that was my son,' I thought. But yes, it absolutely was."
More importantly, she stated what she immediately did about it.
"I called him in the room with this woman on speakerphone, and I said, 'What did you say to that little girl when you got off the school bus today?'"
"His face? Immediate guilt."
"[He said,] 'I'm sorry, Mom.' I said, 'What do you mean you're sorry? So you said it?'"
"[He said,] 'Yes, ma'am. I'm sorry. Please don't whoop me.' I said, 'Oh, okay, you said it, you knew it was wrong, you knew you would be in trouble, you knew I wouldn't agree with it, and so now you're sorry that you got caught.'"
Carey then proceeded to arrange an apology for the little girl.
Not only did she ask the aunt for her home address so her son could apologize face-to-face, but she also took him to the store to pick out gifts for her first, and had a long conversation with him about giving the little girl an "intentional" apology.
They also exchanged hugs at the end of the meeting.
The mother also took ownership of her son's upbringing.
"If that woman had never called me, I would never know that that came out of my son's mouth. I would never have been able to correct the problem."
"But there's one thing about me, I will never defend or condone any wrong actions by my child. And they will be responsible and accountable for whatever they do."
"I never thought my child would do something like that. As much as I lecture them on bullying and being kind to people and standing up for people who are being bullied, I never expected that out of my son."
"But one thing's for sure, and two thing's for certain, he's not gonna do it again."
You can watch the video here:
Many voiced how appreciative they were of Carey's efforts to make this situation right.
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Others agreed and shared how this video helped them heal something within themselves.
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And for anyone wondering what it means to call someone 'out of their name,' one commenter gave a helpful definition of the Southern lingo:
In a follow-up video, Carey discussed where her son may have learned this behavior if not at home.
"A lot of people are asking me, 'So if your son didn't learn that behavior from you, then where did he learn it?'"
"Kids have access to a lot of things these days. TV, movies, music, peers, YouTube, gaming, and there is no way as a parent that I can 100 percent screen everything that my son sees or hears."
"But at the time when this happened, none of that was even relevant, because I am not going to give my son the opportunity to place blame on anyone for what came out of his mouth. He is going to take full responsibility and accountability for what he said because he knew it was wrong."
You can watch the second video here:
Later, Carey opened up about the number of messages she'd received about asking her husband for his belt.
During the first video, Carey stated that while she and her son were on their way out the door to apologize to the little girl, Carey had also turned to her husband and told him that she needed "the belt off of his waist."
While the mother does not condone raising her children in the way she was raised, she wanted her son to understand how serious the situation was and how much she stood against his bullying behavior.
In a follow-up video, Carey specified what happened that night:
"My son was not hit with a belt that day. Nor had he ever been prior to that."
"He did know, though, that when he saw that, he was in big, big, big trouble."
It's refreshing not only to see a parent taking full responsibility for their child's actions but also to see them teaching their child how to make a wrong right.
It's one thing for a child to make a mistake, even an incredibly hurtful one, but it's a whole other problem if they're allowed to avoid their responsibility to make up for it.
