What went viral this week: A back-to-school before and after + much-needed bath

This little girl’s viral before + after school photo is so relatable

When Scottish mom Jillian Falconer put together two hilarious photos of her daughter Lucie’s first day of school this week she didn’t expect them to go viral, but she also didn’t expect her daughter to come out of school looking like she’d been competing in the Hunger Games. The photo on the left is Lucie as she was dropped off at school. On the right is Lucie when her mom returned to collect her. Her hair is wild. Her socks are drooping. Her school uniform is crumpled. She wears the expression of someone who has been through it. Her mom could not believe the state she was in so she snapped a pic to share with Lucie’s dad. “Lucie is just like any typical child. When I went to pick her up from school and saw how she looked, I was mortified,” Falconer told her local paper, the Barrhead News . The newspaper posted the photo on its Facebook page and the pic went viral, attracting likes from around the world. Falconer told the paper that when she asked Lucie what she’d been doing at school to get into that state she said “Oh nothing, I just played with my friends.” ? Sometimes life comes at you so hard you don’t even realize it. We’ve all been there, Lucie. Especially this week.

Viral post reminds us that kids need self-care time, too

Justifying Jane The mom of four behind the Facebook page and blog , Justifying Jane went viral this week by reminding us that sometimes our kids need quiet time for self-care, too. She posted a photo of one of her sons, age 8, taking a nice, luxurious bath (complete with Cheetos and a wine glass filled with fruit punch) along with the following caption: “This kid right here hasn’t had the greatest start to the school year. We’re only on week 2, and I’ve already conferenced with the teacher and principal. He’s done a few things wrong, and then had some backlash come his way that no 8 year old boy on the planet deserves. For the past 3 days I’ve sat outside the school at 3:00 biting my nails and straining to see him walk out the door. I wanna see what his face looks like, so I can gauge what the day has done to him. When we got home yesterday I resumed my usual line of questioning…’What happened today?’, ‘Did anyone say mean things?’, ‘Did you say mean things?’, ‘Did anyone play with you today?’, ‘How are you feeling? Are you okay?'” she writes. This mama obviously has a lot of questions and concerns about her son’s stressful start to the school year, but he reminded her that he’s carrying a lot of stress about it, too. “I saw this look on his face that said, ‘I need you to stop.’ And so, I did. And then I decided that sometimes our little humans need the same things we need: they need space. And 20 minutes of silence. And their favorite snacks laid out next to a warm bath. I think sometimes these are the things that speak love to our children louder than our voices. He was calm for the rest of the night. And this morning when I dropped him off I looked him straight in the face and said, ‘You got this.’ And he said, ‘Yeah….but if I don’t, will you make me another bath tonight?’ And I said ‘Always.'” That’s exactly what our children need to hear sometimes. That they will always have a soft, warm place to chill out at home and that we will always be there to provide that when they need it. If your little one has had a tough week, maybe try this mama’s trick. And if you’ve had a tough week, a warm bath with snacks works to destress adults, too.

This boss’ viral post about helping working parents is perfect

Two weeks ago, California-based recruitment executive Bernie Reifkind , wrote a post on LinkedIn. This week, screenshots of the post went viral on Facebook (where it’s been shared over 91,000 times). He recalls a time when he noticed an employee sobbing, silently, at her desk—and it wasn’t even 8 o’clock in the morning. “I asked her if everything was OK? She told me that her child was sick and that she had been up all night. Bags under her eyes. I asked her ‘So, what are you doing here at the office?’ She said that she had run out of ‘sick days’ and could not afford to miss another day. I sent her home and promised that she would get paid. In addition, I wrote her a check on the spot for extra money to alleviate her immediate financial worry. She was incredibly grateful,” Reifkind wrote. “To this day, she is my best employee not just because of her talent but her loyalty. Employers, please understand that most people are carrying the weight of the world on their shoulders. Burning the candle at both ends. Trying to make ends meet. Kids, homework, spouses, significant others, elder parents, mortgage payments, auto repairs, etc. The relentlessness of life. People are worried about their jobs. PLEASE reassure your hard working employees that their jobs are secure, whenever possible. Loyalty goes both ways.” Reifkind is right: Life can be relentless and the demands on working parents can seem impossible. But when employers recognize that their employees are people and parents, not just employees , there can be a huge return on that investment.