Mom Sleeps With Phone on Silent and Wakes to the Message No Parent Wants to See

It’s a familiar feeling for many parents: the gut-wrenching panic that sets in when you see a series of missed calls from your child in the middle of the night. Even if your kids are grown, that instinct to protect them never fades. For Meredith Thornton, a mother of seven adult children, that fear became all too real when she woke up to a barrage of missed calls from her 18-year-old son, Van.

Meredith’s heart stopped when she saw the calls. Her son’s work schedule meant he’d been on the road late, and the timing of the calls felt ominous. Her mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenarios: a car crash, a serious emergency, or a health crisis. Overwhelmed with anxiety, she was almost too scared to find out what had happened.

Swallowing her fear, she went to check on him. She found him sound asleep in his room, totally fine. He was confused when she woke him up, muttering something about a text he’d sent. And sure enough, there it was.

The “emergency” was a request for a simple Microsoft code that had been sent to her email. Van hadn’t been in danger at all; he’d just needed a simple password to do something online.

Meredith was just too relieved to be angry. She had a feeling other parents would get a laugh out of it, and she was right. When she posted a video about the whole ordeal on TikTok, it went viral, racking up millions of views.

The comments were full of parents sharing their own similar panics. One person wrote, “This is precisely why I sleep with my ringer off. My 17 yo would text at 3 am, ’Can we have pizza tomorrow?’” Another parent provided a useful tip, “Go into their contact info, select ringtone and turn on emergency bypass. It will ring even in silent or do not disturb modes.”

As Meredith put it, “Kids today are up all night. I think they forget that some of us actually sleep!”

Meredith’s story is one that so many parents can relate to. It’s a perfect example of the disconnect between parents and their kids, especially when technology is involved. Check out more stories about teenagers here.