School Sends Mom Photo of 5-Year-Old, What She Sees Leaves Her ‘Ruined’

A mom was left heartbroken after seeing a photo of her 5-year-old daughter doing something unexpected at school.

The advent of school can be a worrying time for both children and parents alike. Last year, a poll of 2,000 U.S. parents with children aged 5 and younger commissioned by Primrose Schools, found 59 percent were concerned about their children’s academic and character development.

A significant proportion of parents responding to the poll expressed concerns about whether their child would learn to play fairly and cooperate with others (50 percent), communicate well with others (49 percent) and be able to appropriately express themselves (47 percent).

Mother-of-two Kgomotso Kgaladi from Pretoria Mamelodi in South Africa had no such reservations about her 5-year-old daughter Mercy making the step up.

“I was not nervous about her starting school,” Kgaladi told Newsweek. “I would say I was rather happy because she is a fast learner and needed the growth from preschool to primary.”

However, that didn’t stop her heart from fluttering a little when a picture was shared showing Mercy in an upsetting situation.

“The pictures were sent to the school group chat, I doubt they thought I would think deeply about them,” Kgaladi said.

Taken during what was supposed to be a “pajama party” at her daughter’s school, one picture in particular touched a nerve for Kgaladi.

It showed three of Mercy’s classmates, sitting together in their night clothes, while Mercy can be seen in the backdrop, sitting alone on a bench.

Upset at what she saw, Kgaladi shared the picture to her TikTok page realtygress, describing it as “the picture that ruined my day.”

“My heart was torn because I know my daughter likes friends a lot and often gets in trouble for them because even in class she wants to talk to her friends,” Kgaladi said. “She is not one to sit by herself without a problem.”

Included in the clip was a screenshot of the text conversation between her and Mercy’s teacher in which she asked for an explanation as to why her daughter was “sitting so far from the rest of the kids.”

“Was she on timeout?” Kgaladi asks in the messages.

She was not. “She chose to sit there,” Mercy’s teacher replied.

It was only later, when Kgaladi asked her daughter what had happened, that the truth of the situation emerged.

“A friend of hers spilled hot chocolate on her new onesie and did not apologize but lied about the whole occurrence,” Kgaladi said. “This resulted in her getting upset then ultimately sitting alone.”

This explanation came as something of a relief. The response to Kgaladi’s TikTok, meanwhile, has been a positive one. At the time of writing it’s been watched over 4 million times.

Despite all the online drama, Kgaladi remains confident about how her daughter will fare at school. “I trust that she will learn from all this and still thrive,” Kgaladi said. “She is more than capable and she has very supportive parents.”