Colorado mom Natasha Melton was delighted when her 6-year-old son Jameson brought home a drawing of the family from school.
But when she looked closer, she saw Jameson drew her a bit different than the rest of the family: her hands are raised to her mouth and she has little C-shaped marks all around her body.
“I had to ask him who this was,” Natasha said in a video she posted on TikTok. “He said, ‘It’s you, Mom, but you’re so nervous all the time!'”
You can hear Natasha, a 26-year-old mom of two, laughing in the video, and her sense of humor about the situation is still intact when she talks to TODAY.com.
“I would definitely say I’m a little bit more of a nervous mom than most, but not in a bad way,” she says. “I don’t think it’s a negative thing necessarily, though my family does notice it sometimes.”
Natasha Melton with 6-year-old Jameson and 4-year-old Mason.Courtesy Paul Arellano
Natasha explains that Jameson, her oldest son, had brought home the project at Halloween time. When Natasha and her husband Jonathan found Jameson’s “silly little picture,” they both thought it was “super cute.”
“He basically just described to me that we were carving pumpkins and stuff, we were having fun, but I was nervous because pumpkins on the edge of the table make me nervous,” she says.
Many commenters saw both the humor and the truth in the drawing:
“Anxiety, you need to let Mom go.””He drew your timbers being shivered. 😭😭””Not the heebie jeebies ON PAPER! 🤣””OVERSTIMULATED 24/7 😂😭😂😂”
Natasha is surprised that the video has received over 300,000 views so far. She’s also “really glad because I think that it’s important to start these conversations, especially around topics like this.” She adds, “I think that anytime you can make something that’s relatable, or make people feel like they’re not alone, that’s really meaningful.”
In fact, Natasha doesn’t even mind the negative opinions about her parenting because it’s important to hear voices from all sides.
“Everybody’s experiences are different,” she says.