Finding out that your teenage daughter is pregnant is enough to make any parent's heart drop. Nicole Hennessy knows all about that. The mom from Rockville, Maryland, was definitely in shock when she discovered that her 17-year-old daughter Angelina was expecting a baby last fall. But recently, Hennessy took to TikTok to share the story of how it all happened — and, more importantly, how she responded. And now that the video is going viral, a lot of people are saying that it's actually the perfect blueprint for how all parents should react, should they ever be in the same situation.
Hennessy, who started a TikTok account in April to combat her quarantine boredom, shared the story on the platform last week.
In it, she reenacts the day she walked into the bathroom to find a pregnancy test wrapper lying on the floor. Stunned, she picked it up and asked her teen daughter, Angelina, if it was hers.
Turns out, it was.
Gulp.
Angelina insisted that her mom had nothing to worry about.
After all, she said, the pregnancy test was negative. Still, Hennessy launched into a long lecture on safe sex and using protection, like most parents might.
The next day, her daughter went off to school, but her mother just couldn't shake a nagging feeling ...
Her gut was telling her to head to the store and buy another pregnancy test, just to be sure. And lo and behold … Hennessy's gut was right.
Angelina was pregnant — meaning that the first test she took must have been a false negative.
Naturally, the teen panicked.
Hennessy says her daughter emerged from the bathroom in tears, feeling sad and confused. But instead of being greeted by another lecture, her mom welcomed her into her arms with a warm hug, and told her it was all going to be OK.
Then, Hennessy did something that the internet is currently applauding ...
She told her daughter she had three options: She could choose to end her pregnancy, look into adoption, or keep the baby and raise it herself. The decision was hers alone to make, but Hennessy assured her that she would support her no matter which decision she chose.
In the end, her daughter chose to follow through with the pregnancy.
Since posting the video, Hennessy has received thousands of comments from strangers.
A lot of people were impressed by how well the mom handled herself, given the circumstances.
"And that's a GREAT MOM," one person wrote.
"I wish there were more supportive moms like you," another person added.
Most of all, though, people were loving how Hennessy laid out the three choices her daughter had, instead of trying to push one upon her, or (even worse) not mentioning them at all.
"Three options? YOU ARE AMAZING!!!!" one person wrote. "Thank you for teaching her the right way instead of being forced to have it if she didn't want to."
"THIS!!! So much this!" another added. "You're a wonderful mother!"
"PRO CHOICE MOMS FOR THE WIN," another added.
Still, there were plenty of negative comments left.
Many of them came from people who shamed the mom for "allowing" her daughter to become pregnant in the first place.
To those comments, Hennessy issued a follow-up post hours later.
"I want to address something that's been on my mind all day," she began, "and I'm going to try to stay positive. I respect that everyone has different opinions … we're human, and we have that right. My daughter is also a human with that right, and my job as her mother is to educate her and help her be the best person that she wants to be, not who I want her to be."
In Hennessy's mind, not giving her daughter all three of her options would have meant that she was being a "manipulative person."
Her aim was to allow her daughter to make an informed decision for herself, and not one based on anyone else's thoughts or opinions.
"We talked about the pros and cons, we talked about abortion, we talked about adoption, and we talked about keeping the baby, and what all three of those things would look like for her," Hennessy continued. "And then she got to make an educated decision based on facts. That's what makes her an independent person and a strong person, and I hope you raise your children the same way."
Other commenters questioned whether Hennessy really had a right to share her daughter's pregnancy story so publicly.
She responded to those, too.
"Absolutely, I asked her permission first, and then I showed her the video in my drafts and got her OK on it before I posted it," Hennessy explained.
Aside from a few critics, Hennessy received a standing ovation on this one.
In fact, some former teen moms even stood up to praise Hennessy for handling things the way she did.
"I was a teen mom and my parents reacted just like you," one person wrote. "Guess who has grown up as a responsible mother, has a career and a stable life?"
Others also jumped in to defend her against the haters, telling her not to let the negative comments get her down.
"You did the best thing, don't let anyone tell you how to raise your kids," one person wrote.
By the looks of things, though, it doesn't seem as though Hennessy is letting and of the pushback get to her. Responding to some TikTok comments, she later shared that her daughter is now seven months pregnant, and due in roughly eight weeks. She is also keeping the baby, which was her decision.
Still, reaching that decision wasn't easy for her daughter, as Hennessy explained in another follow-up video.
According to the reenactment, the days that followed Angelina's pregnancy news were stressful for everyone. Hennessy's friends came over, with wine, hugs, and some words of encouragement. Meanwhile, she started reaching out to professionals who could further walk Angelina through her options.
Initially, the teen decided to have an abortion, and her mom even accompanied her to the clinic to have one — not just once, but twice. The first time, Angelina felt she wasn't ready, but the second time, she had a gut feeling telling her it wasn't what she really wanted to do.
And so, Hennessy told her point-blank: She needed to do what she needed to do — but either way, her mom would support her.
By the end of the video, the Maryland mom explains that the pair now work together as a team to prepare Angelina for her life as a new mom.
Speaking with Insider this week, Hennessy said that she's received an influx of messages since sharing the story.
Many of them came from teens, who are currently struggling to break the news to their own parents.
"I think that parents sometimes forget that their teenagers want that open, honest relationship. They want to go to their parents," she told the outlet. "And when we get upset or judge quickly, it pushes our kids away from being open and honest with us."
Hopefully, her story does more than just reach other teens who are coping with this — ideally, it will help open the eyes of some parents, who may have reacted differently to news like this before.
