What to Know
Sometimes, I find myself staring at my tween and closing my eyes. Usually, I’m picturing him at the age of three or six or even ten. They all feel so far away now that I have to think really hard to remember them. But at the time, I told myself I’d never forget every second of his life, especially the hard parts. Of course, time goes on, and those memories dim. But goodness, when you’re in them, they’re brutal. Recent American Idol contestant Hannah Harper brought judge Carrie Underwood to tears with her relatable audition song. And Carrie wasn’t the only one who needed a tissue by the end.
The song memorializes a dark time in Harper’s life.
She explained that shortly after the birth of her one-year-old, she developed postpartum depression. Before she could get much further into her story, the tears naturally started to spring up.
“I was sitting on my couch wallowing — everyone wanted to touch me and I didn’t want to be touched,” she said, wiping away the tears. “My son kept coming up to me saying ‘Mom, open this. Open my cheese,’ and I was like, ‘leave me alone with the daggum cheese,’” she said.
But as she opened the cheese, she realized that despite all of the challenges, motherhood was exactly what she wanted.
Any mom can relate to the song’s lyrics.
Harper took a minute to compose herself before singing, and as soon as she sang the first line, Underwood was hooked.
“I warmed my morning coffee for the third time,” Hannah Harper sang, and how many of us know that feeling? “Ms. Rachel on the TV singing their favorite nursery rhymes. Hot Wheels and Little People under my feet; it’s babies and chaos, but I don’t miss a beat.”
As she continued to sing, the camera cut to Underwood nodding along to the lyrics, her own eyes welling up with tears. At that moment she wasn’t an award-winning singer and former American Idol winner; she was a mom of two boys who are growing up too fast for her liking.
Hannah Harper touched a lot of hearts in that moment.
“I thought finding peace in the quiet is what I wanted,” Harper continued to sing. “But I’d do anything to go back to being needed. To those days I wanna cry, run away and hide, but I’d worry about their every need.”
“When I’m overwhelmed and touched out, they climb up on the couch saying ‘Momma, can you open my string cheese?’ I smile cuz I know meeting their needs fills my soul — being their momma is who I’m meant to be.”
Is someone cutting onions in here? They must have been cutting them in the studio, because Underwood needed a tissue.
The song won her a lot of new fans.
Moms flooded the comment section, sharing how Harper’s song touched their hearts.
“So all us moms crying in the dark or is it just me,” one mom asked.
“Possibly the most relatable song I’ve ever heard in my adult life,” someone else commented.
Diaper brand Huggies got in on it, commenting, “Crying over string cheese 😭😭.”
“Sitting here awake while my 3 year old Is asleep, dealing with some of my hardest days and I never knew I needed a song like this, I never saw it from this point of view 😭 I’ll take a breathe and slow down everytime my son climbs on me out asks for help while I’m overwhelmed,” another mom shared.
Another comment reads “Didn’t know a song called “string cheese” would have me crying.”
