There is a whole corner of the internet dedicated to the love of cleaning. Content creators film themselves scrubbing, sweeping, and picking up their homes in a way that is just so aesthetically pleasing, gaining hundreds of thousands of views and engagement. On TikTok, this genre of content is called #CleanTok.
For moms who want to create some extra good #CleanTok content, what better room to tidy up than a teenager’s bedroom? When TikTok mom and content creator, Audrey, filmed a video of her picking up her teenage daughter’s bedroom, she was inundated with trolls hating on her for enabling her kid to be lazy, dirty, and messy.
In a follow-up video, Audrey had a perfect clapback. In a voice-over set to footage of her, once again, tidying up her daughter’s room, she explains the hows and whys of her cleaning journey, including context for her cleaning videos and a little preaching moment about extending grace to others.
“I posted a video last night, and in fairness to the trolls, I did post it hoping that the trolls would get those thumbs a-movin’,” Audrey confessed. “Sometimes it’s better to illustrate your point with examples.”
“I surprised my daughter by cleaning her room for her. She’s been getting herself up for 6 a.m. practices, she gets herself to school, she’s out of the house before the rest of us have even woken up. Keep in mind she’s 12. In return for all that she’s been doing, I thought it would be a nice treat if I just did a quick speed clean of her room. It was no big deal.”
She continued, “The point of this video is that you need to extend grace. That’s what I did for my daughter. She had fallen behind on her room and I helped her.”
She goes on to explain that, as a parent, extending grace is one of the most powerful things you can do.
“It costs you nothing, and it creates this ripple effect of kindness. We all have setbacks, we all have failures, we all make mistakes and if you say you don’t you’re lying. By extending grace we are spreading kindness, we are spreading compassion. If you can’t extend grace to your own children then there’s no way you’re going to extend it to anyone else in the world and that’s a scary world to live in.”
“And extending grace to others makes it easier for us to extend it to ourselves and that’s vital for our mental health. So if you watched the video yesterday or you’re watching this one today and you’re thinking negative thoughts, ask yourself, ‘Am I quick to judge, be resentful, be negative or am I quick to extend grace or ask yourself have I ever stumbled and wish grace had been extended to me?’”
After her video went viral, several TikTok users chimed in with their own opinions on Audrey’s explanation.
One user wrote, “Exactly I did the same thing for my 23-year-old daughter who works full-time and is a full-time college student. She’s 100% independent. I just want to take some off stress off her plate.”
“Returning home to a clean and organized space is so well for her mental health 💕💕,” another wrote.
Another user said, “You are SUCH a sweet mama. I wish I had experienced grace like this in my young life, but this is a great reminder to extend it to others now. Thank you! 💛”
This woman’s daughter is not even a teenager yet, but still, acting responsibly, meeting her commitments, and being a good kid! Why the hell shouldn’t her mom help her out a bit and clean up her room?
