These parents laugh-sobbing after son’s first preschool dropoff will make you feel so seen

Parenting is sort of like being strapped into an emotional rollercoaster that you’re just staying on for the rest of your life, and you’re not alone if you find yourself sobbing uncontrollably in a parking lot from time to time. TikTok creators Mary and Samajee Harper can relate, and you too will understand the hilarious and heartwarming reaction they had to dropping their son off at preschool for the very first time.

Mary recently went viral—to the tune of 7.5 million views and close to 17,000 comments—when she shared a video of her and her husband in the car after they dropped their 3-year-old son Isaiah off for his first day of preschool.

In the clip, Mary can be seen weeping and laughing at the same time, noting in the video’s caption that she’d been crying, but then when she saw her husband crying so hard, it made her start to laugh. Poor sweet Samajee is inconsolable, telling Mary that he thought he was “gonna be cool,” but when Isaiah looked back at him, he said, “It was the look on his face. I couldn’t, I couldn’t do it.”

The pair experienced all the emotions in that preschool parking lot, which any parent will instantly relate to. And yes, the thousands of comments were right there with them, sharing their own stories of parking lot sobfests while their kids were no doubt happily playing and making new friends.

It seems the Harpers knew they’d be overwhelmed during that first preschool drop-off, with Mary telling PEOPLE, “Leading up to the first day, I knew that I was going to be emotional, so I made sure that Isaiah started on a day that worked for both my husband and me to attend drop-off.”

“Isaiah was so excited to go to school,” she added. “He was practicing his teacher’s name, and we went over typical school rules. I felt very emotional as I was getting him ready for school. Sam was also emotional, but was holding it together very well before we dropped Isaiah off.”

Mary simply wanted to show other parents that big parenting moments run the wild gamut of emotions. “I wanted to show what it’s really like when you send your child off to school. We were both crying so I started recording, but I didn’t know that he was THAT emotional,” she said of her husband. “It was so cute, but also so funny so I couldn’t help but start laughing at both of us being so emotional.”

Thankfully, Isaiah had an absolute blast on his first day. “Isaiah told me about how much he loved the playground and his new teacher,” she shared. “He was so ready to go back again.”
The couple filmed a follow-up video upon picking Isaiah up, and his adorable “Mommy, daddy!” will make your heart melt right into a puddle on the floor. Ugh, too precious.