Each week, certain local stories and videos catch national attention and go viral. Here are three viral stories that caught our eye this week we wanted to share:
Daddy blogger at DaddyDoinWork.com, Doyin Richards, posted a blog post back in October that included a photo of him baby wearing his youngest daughter, born last July 13, while doing his 2 1/2 year old daughter’s hair. The post, “I Have a Dream: That People Will View a Picture Like This and Not Think It’s a Big Deal,” Richards wrote about being a doting dad and meeting the challenge to do something moms do all the time. He wanted people to see the photo and see it as norm. It got republished on The Good Men Project and eventually landed on the pages of Yahoo! Shine. Awesome!
In a matter of hours of the photo to the story being posted on The Good Men Project, the photo went viral, quickly amassing nearly 5,000 shares, 3,000 comments, and 190,000 likes.
Sadly, some of those commenting on the story had some not-so-nice things to say: “He probably rented those kids. They don’t even look like him,” and “I would bet anything that you’re a deadbeat.”
Richards, a college graduate, and totally present father was understanding of all the emotional reaction to the photo, telling Yahoo Shine:
“The media doesn’t portray fathers as caregivers,” she said. “We’re seen as bumbling fools trying to figure out parenthood, or macho men pushing their kids into the NFL. The other issue is that there’s a stereotype that black fathers are deadbeats.”
Sad and unfortunate. I have my own photo of my husband doing our daughter’s hair. It should be a movement that we all share that photo to combat the negative deadbeats out there.
But perhaps, it’s better to focus on the thousands more that left positive comments and not bring shine to the miserable negative few.
Shine on, papa!
This hilarious Old Spice commercial is very relatable for moms to boys like myself. I spotted it on a friend’s Facebook Wall and I’ve gone back to it again and again, cracking up each time. It was only uploaded on January 3 and has gotten over 3 million views already! Hilarious!
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Post by Trent Shelton.
Finally, a mom shared a video of her daughter who suffers from Alopecia on the website of a motivational speaker Trent Shelton whose outreach video the little girl was watching when she learned a lesson about beauty. It got over 160,000 shares. It’s a tearjerker. Grab your tissues and watch it until the end.