Having an aunt in your kid’s life who cares about them is one of the best feelings. It’s really special for our kids to have relationships with extended members of their family. And there’s nothing like having an aunt to babysit or hang out to give a tired mom a break! One woman is going viral after sharing a video on social media of her own babysitting adventure.
She stepped in to help out her sister, which seems simple enough. Except, the babysitting was through FaceTime while she was at work! People are shouting her out for being the kind of support we all wish every mom could have.
The woman shared a brief snapshot of her experience.
Melasadies Worrell shared a 17-second video clip on her TikTok, which now has over 2 million views. The video is of her baby nephew sleeping, but Worrell can be seen in the upper left corner.
“When your sister is home with the kids by herself and she needs someone to watch them while she takes a shower. So you use your lunch break to help her,” Worrell wrote over the video of the sleeping little one.
@melasadiesworrell This is hilarious to me but effective ! Thank God for FaceTime ! @Kiara smith #momsoftiktok #momlife #auntiesbelike #auntiesoftiktok ♬ Monkeyshine-JP – Lt FitzGibbons Men
She was just trying to be a good aunt.
“This is hilarious to me but effective ! Thank God for FaceTime !” she captioned the post, tagging her sister, Kiara Smith.
Worrell spoke with Newsweek, giving more details about how the aunt ended up babysitting. She explained that her sister was getting ready for a birthday date night with her new husband. Because Worrell, who lives in Georgia, had just taken off for the wedding, she has no vacation days left. But she wasn’t going to let that stop her from helping her younger sister out with her two boys, ages 4 and 4 months.
“She just put [her youngest] to sleep and I told her to leave the phone in front of him, connect me to her speaker in the bathroom and I would say something if he started to move or cry,” Worrell said.
It’s clear that family is important to Worrell.
The 30-year-old called herself a “long-distance aunt.” But, she explained, “my family was always raised to be super close, so I call and speak with them all the time. When I cannot make it home, I will literally sit on FaceTime with them and talk to them or watch them for my sisters — whatever helps.”
Her sister put her infant on a pullout couch so he wouldn’t get hurt if he moved in his sleep, she said. And while she knows the FaceTime might have been overly cautious, that doesn’t bother her.
“She felt a sense of peace knowing that I was there watching them, even if I couldn’t physically do anything. But I could scream out and let her know, ‘Wait a second, get out of the shower, he’s rolling!'” she explained.
People are praising Worrell for her long-distance aunt babysitting commitment.
In the comments, people shared their own experiences as and with aunties.
“I did this for my cousin and she had me bluetoothed to a speaker that was in the bathroom that way if the baby needed her or was about to do something dangerous she could hear me lol,” one person wrote.
Another person added: “An aunties work is never done! We’re really the other parent most times.” Worrell replied: “Them our kids too !”
“I’ve definitely done this with my son,” one mom wrote. “He’s 11 and he didn’t want to do a quick run with me so my sister stay on FaceTime with him while she was working from home.”
Worrell acknowledged the privilege she has to do what she did.
“It is humbling to know that sometimes there are others out there like you, going through the same thing. To be able to take some responsibility from a mom, a family member, if only for a little while, is a blessing that blesses both parties,” she said.
