A Pennsylvania mom’s Facebook post shaming her son into calling her hit the humiliation jackpot.
“I taught you how to go to the potty and ride a bike, so I am going to teach you how to use a phone,” she calls out her son in the video. “I know, someone texts his girlfriend every day, doesn’t he?”
It’s been viewed over four million times. But some moms don’t mean to become an Internet sensation — they’re just so darn proud.
“In the beginning she would post on people’s walls instead of commenting on a picture and just say ‘Oh, so beautiful, so cute,’ and I would have to call her and be like, ‘That’s not right…'” said Alix Bleetstein, a senior at George Washington University.
“She posted about my divorce before I could,” said Victor Bush of Nashville, Tennessee. “Something along the lines of ‘Victor’s getting a divorce, so sad… heartbreaking.'”
Moms may not even realize they’re doing it wrong. Just ask Kenneth Byrd and his wife, Mary Margaret.
“She would get on when he was in college and be like, ‘Don’t forget to pay your bills’ on his [Facebook] wall,” Mary Margaret recalled.
“Yeah, she couldn’t see me. She couldn’t be with me. So it was like, ‘Pay your bills…’ It’s on my wall,” Kenny said. “All my friends, my friends are liking it. ‘Haha, your mom’s so cool.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah that’s so cool,'” he added, sarcastically.
The bottom line is as old as time — moms just want to feel a part of their kids’ lives.
“There’s a fantasy that the new world of communication has put our children kind of right there with us,” said Sherry Turkle, a professor of science, technology and society at MIT. “Parents are grappling and hustling for how to connect, but they are really not having the conversations they want very often.”
And no one knows that story better than Kenny’s mother, Bette Byrd, a “reformed” Facebook over-sharer from the small town of Ozark in southern Alabama.
Bette started out with almost daily posts on Facebook walls of Kenny and his older brother, Rob.
“You know, I’d just say, ‘Hi Rob, it’s mom. I love you,'” Bette said.
Finally, Rob asked her to rein it in.
“Oh, I felt like I’d been spanked. I did!” Bette said.
Today, her posts are about her gardening, funny videos and yes, the occasional proud mom post. But now, the kids don’t mind her posts, or even if she exaggerates just a little.
“Kids need to realize that their moms are very proud of them and that they should be really thankful that their moms even care enough to say anything about them, really,” Kenny said.
Bette has multiple sclerosis and five years ago she was diagnosed with cancer. With travel impossible, social media is a way to be a part of things from a distance, like when Mary Margaret’s sister-in-law had a baby and Bette posted the pictures.
“I would have liked to have interjected myself and been right there,” Bette said. “It breaks my heart, it does,” she added, choking back tears. “If I can see them and know that they’re happy, that’s all that matters to me, is that I can see them on here. That’s fine. For me, it’s wonderful, just really wonderful.”
Kenny and Mary Margaret said when they go visit, the one thing she won’t do is get on Facebook since they are physically present. But that means she is going to start using it a lot less because they told us — and gave us permission to reveal for the first time on “CBS This Morning” — they are moving back to Alabama sometime in the next year or so.
Happy Mother’s Day, Bette, and to all moms everywhere.
