As any mom of teens will tell you, your babies go from needing you every moment to legitimately becoming ill at the sight of you once the hormones start dropping. It happens JUST. LIKE. THAT. And if you’ve spent any time on TikTok lately (which, let’s face it, you have), you’ve probably seen the trends where parents are post side-by-side pics of their kids: first, the current teen too-cool-for-school version, rolling their eyes, hissing at the mere suggestion of even allowing you to snap a picture of them.
Then swipe… and you see the same kid, years earlier, a snuggly little nugget, all baby-cheeked up, and wrapped around you like a baby koala.
It’s a motherhood rite of passage.
There will come a point when our sweet baby koalas grow into independent people with their own lives, their own inside jokes (that we’re not in on), and their own friend group that definitely outranks us in the “people they’d like to hang out with” department.
Shocking, I know. But just because your kid is suddenly a member of the OMG YOU’RE SO EMBARRASSING CLUB doesn’t mean you have to be strangers.
Enter Lyndsey Stamper, the TikTok mom who’s really leaning in to a mission to make her teenagers do something with her every day for 30 days. And before you picture this as a sweet, “if they’re up for it” kind of deal, YEA NO. This is “mandatory, whether they want to or not” territory and we’re SO here for it.
On Day 6 of posting videos of the mom’s challenge, Lyndsey went viral for pulling out the unthinkable: a TikTok dance.
Say it with us… OH NO! SHE DIDN’T!
Oh yes, she sure did.
“Day six of making my teens do something with me every day for 30 days, whether they want to or not!” she announces to the camera, with the energy of someone who has definitely used the words “Don’t tell your father about this.”
@lyndseystamper1 Day 6 of 30: making my teens do something with me every day for 30 days whether they want to or not! Barbie trend! #boymom #teenboys #forcedfamilyfun #ilovemyboys #teenagers #teenboymom #30dayschallenge #barbietrend @stampthechamp @stampthechamp1 ♬ original sound – MayBE8Later>W<
She psychs herself up before going inside: “Just got home, about to go inside and tell them what the activity of the day is. I don’t know if they’re gonna do it. They will. They will.” (The mental pep talk of every mom who’s about to seriously piss off her kids.)
She finds her sons and casually drops the news: “Okay, so today’s activity is gonna be a quick and easy one. We’re gonna do a TikTok trend. Are you ready? … We’re gonna do the Barbie trend!”
Both boys blink like she’s speaking another language. “The what?”
“The Barbie trend,” she says with the enthusiasm of someone who will not be taking NO as an answer. “I’ll give you a minute to look it up and then we’ll do it. Oh boy. Are we excited?”
(Spoiler alert, they were not excited.)
But here’s the thing… they did it.
And the footage is gold. Watching a mom and her teenage boys awkwardly learn a TikTok dance together is basically a masterclass in “bonding through mild humiliation.” The final product? Adorable, hilarious, and guess what? The boys almost looked like they were having fun. Imagine?
One commenter shared, “My parents forced us to do stuff, and it was annoying at the time, but now I realize how lucky I was to have parents that tried to bond with us.”
Another shared: “My boys are 13 months apart. Currently 15 months and 2 months. I cannot wait to make memories with them like this.”
One more commenter wrote, “They’re resistant at first but by the end, I think they were invested to make it the best!”
To which Lyndsey replied, “Absolutely! You can totally see the transition!”
So here’s the takeaway, fellow parents:
They might groan, roll their eyes, and act like they’re being tortured. But secretly? They love it. And one day, those “forced fun” moments will be the ones they laugh about.
And if nothing else, at least you got a viral TikTok out of it.
