In recent years, we’ve seen a push among parenting communities to be more mindful of their children’s personal boundaries.
This often takes the form of respecting and enforcing their decision not to feel obligated to show family members certain kinds of affection as children. But this philosophy becomes just as relevant when those children come of age.
After all, how many stories have we have of in-laws snooping around in their children’s homes uninvited and trying to make decisions that aren’t in their power when a couple is in the birthing room?
And it is this cultural context that makes it so easy to understand why one mom’s TikTok viewers were less than impressed when she played an invasive prank on her son. That said, it’s hard to think of an era when it wouldn’t have seemed bizarre.
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On May 8, a woman who goes by crazystoreowner on TikTok uploaded a video that began with her going over to her 23-year-old son’s home.
After a brief introduction, she shared this photo from his Instagram account indicating that a woman she didn’t recognize spent the night with him.
This apparently inspired her to go over and meet her while her husband filmed. Her caption said, “I know I am the worst mom. Let the comments begin,” indicating that she knew the way she went about this would be unpopular.
Nonetheless, viewers still weren’t prepared to see her let herself in and creep up to the side of his bed.
She then threw back the covers and exclaimed “Hi guys! how are you? Happy Mother’s Day” to her son and the woman he was sleeping next to.
This prompted many commenters to wonder whether she had considered the possibility of catching them during a private moment.
As one of them put it , “It’s like she went in trying to catch them & pulling down the covers. This just doesn’t sit right with me. BOUNDARIES..”
And these feelings were only confirmed when she crawled into bed and put her arms over both of them in an awkward embrace.
In one user’s words, “When moms want to low key date their own sons and ruin every relationship they have.”
Others could only imagine how the young woman felt about this, with one person saying, “If I stayed at some guy’s house for the first time and woke up to this… never again.”
By and large, commenters criticized her for overstepping her adult son’s boundaries in his own home and said they’d change the locks, block their parents from social media, and even cease contact entirely if they did something similar.
The mom’s follow-up video that was apparently a joke intended to mimic a hostage video featured her husband telling her she’s a great wife and mother who doesn’t overstep her boundaries.
But for viewers, it was very telling that it was her husband saying this and not her son.
In one user’s words, “It’s ok you guys, he’s MY son. His boundaries don’t matter to me.”
