A teenager’s response to her mother’s “I love you” text is heartbreaking

Trigger warning: This article contains themes related to gun violence that some readers may find disturbing.

This mother just wanted to tell her little girl that she loved her. But the 13-year-old’s reaction shocked and broke her heart. In a TikTok video, the mother, Shari, whose username is @gen3raleducation, explained that her little girl was home while she was at work, which is about an hour away. She just wanted her daughter to know that she was thinking of her. “I’m at the office and my daughter, who turns 14 in August, is home alone today,” she explained while filming from her desk.

After sending an “I love you” text, she said she “got up to run something. When I got back, I had two missed texts asking, ‘Are you OK?'” Before the confused mother could even read the second message, her phone began ringing. “I answered the phone and she said, ‘Are you OK?'” Shari explained. Confused by her daughter’s concern, she asked the young teen what she meant, and Shari’s daughter heartbreakingly explained that she shouldn’t have sent the “I love you” text without context. “That’s the kind of thing you send when you’re in trouble… like a school shooting,” her daughter told her.

The reaction has left her mother completely devastated. “I couldn’t text my daughter in the middle of the afternoon to tell her I loved her because she thought I was in danger,” she said at the end of her video, adding, “Fuck that crap.” Unfortunately, many others could relate to what was said. @rosemaryhuard175 commented, “The trauma these kids had to endure with school shootings. The consequences will be horrific. They should all be getting therapy now.” @jennygee444 added, “Yes. Teacher here. Not at all surprised by her PTSD. Hugs to you and your baby.”

This year – which is not even over yet – the United States has seen 28 mass killings, with a total of 140 victims. According to PBS, the period from January 1 to June 30 was the deadliest six months of mass killings since at least 2006, with 140 people killed in one country in 181 days. “What a horrific milestone,” said Brent Leatherwood, whose three children were killed in class at a private Christian school in Nashville on March 27. “You would never think that your family would be part of that statistic.” Such incidents also cause additional stress for survivors of the attacks.

According to the American Psychological Association, more than 79 percent of adults in the country say they experience stress due to the possibility of a mass killing, Social Work Today reports. “It is clear that mass killings affect our mental health, and we should be especially concerned about their impact on the way many of us live our daily lives,” said Arthur C. Evans Jr., Ph.D., CEO of the APA. “The more frequently these events occur in places where people frequent, the greater the impact on mental health. We don’t have to experience these events directly for them to affect us. Just hearing about them can have an emotional impact, and this can have negative effects on our mental and physical health.”