Home / Life This mom’s rant about school tardiness will make you feel instantly better Katlynn.Whittenburg/TikTok "Seven minutes late? What do you want me to say? What do you want me to say?" By Christina Marfice November 20, 2023 Katlynn.Whittenburg/TikTok Rectangle If you’re a parent who struggles with tardiness, you’re going to want to watch this viral (and incredibly relatable) TikTok video. Katlyn Whittenburg, a 35-year-old mom of four from Tennessee, made the video to lament the fact that she’s been late dropping her kids off at school enough times to earn detention — not for her kids, but for herself — and moms everywhere are standing in solidarity. “I was seven minutes late dropping my five-year-old off at school today,” Whittenburg said at the start of her video. “Seven minutes late? What do you want me to say? What do you want me to say? Because I couldn’t? Because I simply cannot?” @katlyn.whittenburg 🐝 #momprobs #parentprobs #parentingbelike #havingkidsbelike ♬ W.A.Mozart, Rondo alla Turca from Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major – AllMusicGallery She continued, “Because my daughter painted a mural using toothpaste this morning, and apparently I support the arts. Because my other daughter had a bloody nose and sneezed and now I gotta get a crime scene cleanup crew to come.” Whittenburg noted that most parents blame traffic when they can’t get their kids to school on time, and she can relate — sort of. “I mean, yeah, in that I wanted to walk out in front of traffic this morning because my 5-year-old didn’t want to wear a coat, she wanted to wear an unsanctioned bee costume for warmth,” she said. Whittenburg isn’t the only one who has great jokes about school tardiness. The comments are filled with gold from other moms. Related: Teachers, you deserve a raise “I’ve written “I’m trash” three times this year,” one wrote. Another added, “My mom used to say ‘car problems’ because we weren’t in the car on time and that was a problem.” Another mom shared, “I was super sick one morning and I wrote down ‘moms stomach was wrecked/kids can’t drive car.'” When will these kids learn to drive already?! Well, if there’s anything we can learn from this video, it’s that none of us are alone in this struggle. The latest Life Washington Post politics reporter Yasmeen Abutaleb on being seven months pregnant on the campaign trail Style Zooey Deschanel’s tips on how to get holiday party-ready (without putting your finger through your tights while your kids are yelling for dinner) Motherly Stories What is the ‘gratitude trap’? How gratitude can keep us stuck Getting Pregnant What to know about using supplements for fertility—and when to start taking them in preconception