When Kyesha Smith Wood dropped her kids off at a suburban Birmingham movie theater on Saturday night to see Cinderella, she had no idea she’d be a viral Internet parenting hero less than 24 hours later, but that’s exactly what happened.
It started with a desperate Mrs. Wood posting on the McAdory-McCalla Community News Facebook page after finding out two of her kids had ruined the movie for a family sitting near them in the theater:
This is a long shot, but I’m looking for a woman that was at Tannehill Premiere tonight seeing Cinderella at 7pm. I dropped my teenage daughter, step daughter and son off at the movie. My son later told me, much to my humiliation and embarrassment, that my girls were rude and obnoxious during the movie. The woman I’m looking for addressed them and asked them to be quiet and they were disrespectful. After the movie she approached my girls and told them that her husband had been laid off and this was the last movie she would be able to take her daughter to for a while and my girls ruined that for her. If you are this woman, please message me. I can assure you that these girls are being strongly dealt with and appropriately punished. This rude, disrespectful, and awful behavior is unacceptable and they owe you an apology. My husband and I are have them write your apology letter tonight and we would like to pay for your next movie and snacks out of their allowance. Please message me if this is you. I apologize profusely for their disrespect.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department then shared the post, and as of right now it has over 235,000 likes, 42,000 shares and 9,000 comments.
Wood was immediately praised for her response to her children’s misbehavior.
One comment, which has received over 4,000 likes, reads, “She is a truly good parent. Hands down. To outright admit her children were in the wrong and want to do something about it, is good parenting. Parents who make excuses for their children are what is wrong with society. Good job mom!”
“This world needs more parents like this lady and her husband,” reads another comment with over 2,000 likes. “If parents would parent their children The way this lady is, our world would be a better place.”
But the story gets even better.
The post eventually made its way to Rebecca Boyd, the woman Mrs. Wood was looking for. Mrs. Boyd reached out to Mrs. Wood, and the two were able to speak on the phone to make things right.
“She’s the most gracious and kind and forgiving woman and I’m humbled by that,” Mrs. Wood said after they spoke.
And as word spread further on social media, companies even began reaching out to the family to see if they could help put Mr. Boyd back to work.
And to think, it all started with one good parent trying to do the right thing.
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— Cliff Sims (@Cliff_Sims) December 3, 2014
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