Alabama Moms Meet After Facebook Apology for Kids’ Behavior Goes Viral
Parenting is never easy. It has its ups and downs and it also has its ups and downs, but sometimes, the worst moments can unexpectedly lead to the best moments. That’s what happened in this story from 2015 when one mother’s negative experience completely turned around.
It all started when Rebecca Boyd of Bessemer, Alabama discovered that her husband had been unexpectedly laid off from his job. She had suffered a loss but instead of wallowing in impending difficulties, she decided to have one last outing with her teenage daughter before the money got too tight.
They decided to see a movie at the Tannehill Premiere Cinema 14, but what they didn’t expect was to have this night lead to a moment that would change their lives for the better. Sadly, what they thought would be a fun girls’ night out turned sour when Boyd and her daughter realized that they wouldn’t be able to enjoy the movie since the two teenagers behind them talked the entire time and even tapped their seats.
“There were two girls behind us, they were giggling, kind of talking … kicking my seat,” Rebecca Boyd, of Adger, Alabama, recalled to ABC News.
“I turned around and I said, ‘You know girls, we paid for this movie just like you did. Could you guys keep it down?’ They just laughed,” Boyd said. “After I spoke to them, they seemed to not care. They just laughed in my face.”
Boyd gave up and assumed that was the end of it and went on her way with her own teenage daughter.
Sadly, she didn’t expect to get another night of fun for a long time. But little did she know that the brother of the teenagers overheard everything and was mortified. When he and his sister got home, he told his own mother what happened and she decided to take matters into her own hands. She told the news outlet:
“That broke my heart … It really made me feel a lot of shame and I felt embarrassed for the girls’ behavior.”
Then the mother, named Kyesha Wood, took to Facebook in a bid to find Boyd and set things right with her and her daughter. The post by Wood read in part:
““This is a long shot, but I’m looking for a woman that was at Tannehill Premier tonight seeing Cinderella at 7pm. I dropped my teenage daughter, step daughter, and son off at the movie. My son later told me, much to my humiliation and embarrassment, that my girls were rude and obnoxious during the movie. The woman I’m looking for addressed them and asked them to be quiet and they were disrespectful. After the movie she approached my girls and told them that her husband had been laid off and this was the last movie she would be able to take her daughter to for a while and my girls ruined that for her. If you are this woman, please message me. I can assure you that these girls are being strongly dealt with and appropriately punished. This rude, disrespectful, and awful behavior is unacceptable and they owe you an apology. My husband and I are having them write your apology letter tonight and we would like to pay for your next movie and snacks out of their allowance. Please message me if this is you. I apologize profusely for their disrespect.”
The local Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office then shared Wood’s post on Facebook. The story went viral, generating over 250,000 likes.
“I live in that community,” Sgt. Jack Self told ABC News. “I just felt like if I could put it for a bigger audience, maybe she could find the lady she was looking for.”
Boyd’s identity was revealed when she left a comment on the sheriff’s office post, and on Monday, the moms finally came together in person.
“I was shocked that the mother supported me,” Boyd told ABC News.
Wood’s daughters wrote an apology letter to Boyd and also contributed some of their allowance towards the Boyd family’s next trip to the movies.
“I believe they’re good girls,” Boyd said. “They just made some mistakes.”
“Rebecca is really the hero in this,” Wood said. “Initially none of this would have happened if Rebecca had not said something to the girls.”
“I think more parents have to do that,” Wood added.
Wood said, “the intention was never to embarrass or humiliate the girls, but at the same time, I think they kind of understand the power of social media and how quickly the things you do wrong can spread.”
Source:abcnews.go.com, apost.com
