70 Best Valentine's Day Jokes for Kids and Adults Too 2024

People Are Sharing Hilariously Ominous Text Messages From Their Parents

Who's received an urgent, ominous or mysterious text message from their parents, only to hear that everything is just fine?

People on social media are posting hilarious messages from their parents that sounded like emergencies — but weren't.

TikToker Allie O'Brien posted several videos with screenshots from an online humor magazine. Some of the internet comments read, "My mom told me, 'Grandpa's plane went down.' It landed. The plane landed" and "My mom once texted me, 'Don't come home after school. I love you.' She was just mopping the floors."

Other comments from adult children, including those left on O'Brien's page read:

"My dad tried calling me three times in a row followed by a text 'Call me — urgent.' I was in a meeting, so I called him back stressed, assuming the worst. He just needed to know what I want for my birthday."

"My grandma had an ANCIENT dog and every few months would text, "Molly's gone…" oh my god she passed? 'No I can't find her.'"

"My stepdad did the reverse, 'Hey buddy, do you have time for a quick call?' and my mom was in critical condition in the hospital."

"My grandma not once but TWICE texted me, 'Nothing important just give me a call when you have a second. No rush' when a family member died."

"Mom left a note on the fridge: 'I'm thinking of ending things tonight?' She left it for my dad in case he wanted (to) watch a Netflix show by that name."

My dad (wrote) 'So your boyfriend died' when Heath Ledger died. I went through all the stages of grief TWICE in three minutes."

"My mom texted me about a tornado that happened in Texas and told me to stock up and be safe. I live in Germany."

"Mom texted me, 'Your brother ... It's all over ... Heartbroken' and I worried he'd died. He and his wife just announced they were moving to a different state further from her."

"Dad texted (that) mom 'Got shot at doctor now" and he's a police officer. It was a flu shot."

"My mom once text me, 'Your dad and I are going to break up.' She meant to say, 'Your dad and I are going to The Break-Up.' The MOVIE."

"My mom will sometimes text and just say, 'We need to talk' with no punctuation, so I have to do some high-level calculations to see if I, a 30 year old man, am in trouble."

"My dad had (a) history of heart issues and I was one thousand miles away at college. My mom sent me a photo of my dad on a gurney being wheeled back into surgery then turned her phone off for two hours."

"Genuinely, what becomes of people over the age of 50 to text like this?" O'Brien said in one of her videos.

O'Brien, 23, tells TODAY.Com the internet trend is entertaining.

"In communicating with my parents, the punctuation and phraseology are different and there are ellipses everywhere," she says. "It can be startling."

O'Brien attributes formalities to some older parents who use the same tone for texting as they would a professional email. "It often comes off as very unsettling to younger people" with their own internet language, she says.

As O'Brien points out: "A lot of comments are from people whose parents thought that LOL meant 'Lots of love'" instead of 'Laugh out loud'" when announcing a death.

Younger people are accountable too, she adds, when responding to a text from a parent with "I'm dead," humorously.

"(My parents and I) have talked about this in the past because we were both coming off as aggressive or strange to the other," says O'Brien.

In-person or phone conversations can clear things up.

"The problem feels specific to text messaging because a phrasing mishap can change everything," says O'Brien. "Whereas in person, you can hear a person's tone, see visuals or clarify what the other means. Over text, things get lost in translation."

This article was originally published on TODAY.Com

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Parents Sue Kirkwood School District For Handling Of Record Requests Regarding Yearbook Controversy

The petition focuses on what the parents call egregious violations, but they say the problems are much deeper.

KIRKWOOD, Mo. — Parents are suing the Kirkwood School District over what they say was mishandling of public records.

A little over a year ago, pages discussing "hookup culture" in Kirkwood's high school yearbook sparked controversy. Since then, concerned parents requested records related to those pages, but they say the school district delayed that access.

Courtney Rawlins said she felt like she had to hold the Kirkwood School District accountable for what she called egregious violations of the open records laws, but she said the problems are much deeper.

Rawlins said her family has been part of the Kirkwood school district for 13 years and over that time she started to peel back layers and layers of issues.

"One of the things that is fresh in everybody's mind is the yearbook story that broke last year, it got national attention. They had asked our kids through a survey, very direct and inappropriate, I think illegal questions about their sex lives," Rawlins said.

So she started asking more questions but said she was met with deflection which led to what she felt like was her only option: open records requests through Missouri's Sunshine Law.

"I never would have thought, three years ago, that I needed to submit a public records request to find out what they're providing my child," Rawlins said.

Rawlins said the district did not meet the deadlines outlined in the law and was ineffective.

"They were late in responding, they would not provide things and insisted that those records didn't exist. And then another Sunshine request would produce that record," Rawlins said.

Rawlins said another problem they uncovered was in the school curriculum, for example, with health and sexual education classes.

"They have not provided ample time for parents to review the curriculum and opt-out as is required by their own policies and expectations. There have been situations where parents did opt their children out but were still provided the very sexually explicit resources and lessons," Rawlins said.

She said for certain middle school classes like mythology and economics, there actually was no curriculum at all.

"I just innocently started asking, 'Hey, we're when did we approve these? And what's the curriculum for them, these parents can't find it.' I found out these classes are being taught but, they never went through the board or the curriculum review committee, and nobody has any understanding of what they're supposed to be teaching. The students are clearly not learning in the way that they would expect to," Rawlins said.

Steph Diedrick, a spokeswoman for the Kirkwood School District, responded with a statement Tuesday: "While the Kirkwood School District does not typically comment on pending litigation, we believe it is important for the community to know that the allegations in the lawsuit simply are not true.  

"The District has responded to dozens of informal and formal requests for information and documents from the plaintiffs over the past year and has provided thousands of pages of documents responsive to these requests. The lawsuit is particularly disappointing because the District has expended so much time and effort to comply with the Sunshine Act.

"Although this litigation will be a drain on resources that should be directed to the education of students, it will not diminish the good work that Kirkwood Schools has accomplished for our students and school community – and that we will continue to accomplish going forward."

Rawlins' attorney, Thomas More Society Senior Counsel Mary Catherine Martin, said that while the district did spend a lot of time and resources on the requests, it doesn't mean it was done correctly.

"The compliance with the Sunshine Law is actually not measured in documents produced, or time spent, it's measured in whether you produce the open records that are in your possession. And they have not," Martin said.

Rawlins said they recently made the difficult decision to pull their second child out of the Kirkwood School District. 

"Part of that is because of her experience this year. Again, with some of the curriculum concerns I have, I see the frustration that my own children have had when they don't have a resource that they can turn to for their math or science class," Rawlins said.

Read the full lawsuit below:

The Press Education Yearbook 2024 One Stop Guide For Parents

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