A Mom Says She Checks Her Kids Out Of School For Any Reason They Want — 'It's A Beautiful, Sunny Fall Day'
Is beautiful fall weather a good enough reason to skip school?
Gustavo Fring / Pexels A mom named Casey Kelley posted a TikTok of herself in the car on her way to pick her kids up from school in the middle of the day, and her reasoning had nothing to do with any appointment or her kids calling out sick.
The mom said she checks her kids out of school for any reason they want, especially on ‘a beautiful, sunny, fall day.’
Kelley qualified her post by recognizing that letting her kids call out from school whenever they want is her version of a beige flag, TikTok relationship-speak for quirky behavior that isn’t a red flag or a green flag. Rather, a beige flag is in between positive and negative behavior, something that makes the other person pause to consider if they’re being normal.
“I’m on my way to check my kids out from school because it’s a beautiful day,” Kelley explained as she drove. “They asked me this morning, ‘Mama, could you check me out today?’”
While some might see this mom as someone who’s enabling her kids to dip out when the going gets tough, others might see her behavior as helping her kids navigate a difficult world.
Kelly continued her explanation for checking her kids out of school, saying, “It’s Friday, these babies work so hard in school. They truly want to make good grades and they try so hard and they’re dealing with so much.”
Photo: Ivan Samkov / Pexels
She’s not wrong in her assessment that young people these days are dealing with a lot, to the point that adolescent mental health continues to worsen. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention published a report addressing trends in teen mental health, and the key findings noted the amount of distress they experience.
In 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic that knocked everyone off-balance, teens reported being hit especially hard. The CDC reported that 42% of students polled felt persistently sad or hopeless. Over one-third of students, or 29%, reported having poor mental health.
The CDC shared two strikingly alarming statistics, noting that 22% of students “seriously considered” attempting suicide in 2021, and 10% of students did, in fact, attempt to end their own lives.
In considering the teen mental health crisis, the mom's decision to check her kids out of school could definitely cause a huge amount of good rather than harm.
Kelley noted “all the social conflicts and mean girls” that accompany these “hard years, junior high and high school years.”
Yet in our current world, students — and teachers — find themselves worrying about their safety every time they step into a school building. With the threat of mass violence looming over any class, it’s no wonder young students have extraordinarily high stress levels.
Photo: Andrea Piacquadio / Pexels
Kelley ended her video with a proclamation about how she parents her kids, stating, “If they need a break on a beautiful fall sunny day, mama will be there, honey. Mama is on her way.”
By checking her kids out from school, this mom is centering their mental health, and teaching her kids to prioritize their well-being over anything else. The lesson she’s sharing is one that will last long beyond her kids’ school years, and well into their adulthood.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers parenting, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.