Raising kids is such hard work, but the parents of the internet are inspiring us this week. The viral stories taking over our feeds this week remind us that whether a mama is working hard to deliver her baby, or working hard to teach her child a great work ethic, it all comes down to showing up for the ones you care about…and sometimes that means taking a bit of a creative approach.

These are the stories that made us smile this week:

This emotional viral video has us crying at this dad’s commitment to supporting his wife during birth

Earlier this month, Kendall Caver became a new dad and he earned that title by supporting his wife through her a long labor. In the now viral video which has been watched millions of times. Caver holds up a series of cards while his wife, Jasmine, looks on from her hospital bed. As his wife prepares to have their baby, Carver is flipping through the story of his life with Jasmine and offering words of encouragement. In his original post to his Facebook page, Caver captioned the video with the sweetest statement. He wrote: “Encouraging my Wife through 2 days of labor ?☺️ Last night my Warrior Wife gave birth to a beautiful Baby Girl!” “Breathe, just like we’ve been practicing,” the first card reads. His cards tell the story of a couple on a 10-year journey, who are best friends who love each other deeply and supported each other through a previous pregnancy loss. “I would do it all over again to know the indescribable happiness I know today,” Carver wrote on one of the cards. (Are you crying yet?) “You are my best friend…soulmate…and in just a few pushes…you’ll be the most amazing mother our daughter could ever ask for.” Jasmine pushed through, and the couple welcomed their daughter, Sofia, earlier this month. And this family’s beautiful love story continues.

This mom created a household hiring event to teach her kids about earning money

As parents, we’re constantly trying to find that balance between caring for our children and teaching them to be independent. We want them to enjoy childhood, of course, but we also want to prepare them for adulthood. And one mother found an incredibly smart, creative way to teach her children about the realities of earning money. Shaketha Marion McGregor is going viral after sharing a post showcasing her system. We can’t say we’re surprised: This mama went all out to create a “hiring event” to allow her children to earn allowance money. “So, my children continue to ask for a new cell phone, an allowance, and to go places,” the mom writes in the now-viral Facebook post. “Yesterday I told them that I’ve heard their requests and that I’ll have a surprise for them today when they get home from school. SURPRISE!!! It’s a whole hiring event! ? If you want it, work for it, earn it!” Shaketha’s photos show the incredible detail involved in her hiring event. She created three positions (kitchen manager, lead housekeeper and laundry supervisor) complete with job descriptor for each one, and scheduled a time for interviews for each position. Her children were asked to fill out applications for each job—and she even set up a credit union! Let’s just say the mama didn’t take the job application process lightly. “Well you guys, the interviews are done and I’m still laughing!!!” she writes in a follow-up Facebook post . “I’m going to make my son reapply and interview again because he laughed 90% of the time.My 10yr old would sometimes start speaking in an English accent like that would help her. And my 6yr old surprised me the most. She was super professional.” Shaketha even sent her son a rejection letter to inform him the position he applied to had been filled. We love this mama’s system so much! We know there are huge benefits that come when children do chores , and we can say from firsthand experience that adjusting to the world of job applications and bill paying can be really tough if you’ve never learned about it. This mom has found a way to teach her kids some really important lessons while having a little bit of fun in the process…and they’ll undoubtedly be prepared to navigate adulthood when the time comes.

This little girl’s viral video proves football talent isn’t gender-specific

As News 5 Cleveland reports, a third grade student in Ohio is gaining viral fame for the impressive football skills she displayed in a recent gym class. Physical Education teacher Kent Hamilton posted the clip on Twitter. His student, Emma, is a soccer player and the teacher came up with a super cool way for her to practice kicking. He projected an image of a field goal on the gym wall, and Emma proved it was almost too easy. Emma’s impressive kick has been seen millions of times, and Carli Lloyd, a member of the Woman’s U.S. Soccer team who trained with NFL teams, retweeted it. Emma’s gym teacher thinks Lloyd (and Emma) prove professional football may soon include women. “I don’t think a female player in the NFL is that far off. This is proof our future is bright for girls,” Hamilton said. It takes a lot of grit for girls to get into the sport as there are few leagues for them, but in recent years more and more goals have been making names for themselves in the boy’s leagues. From the 11-year-old quarterback leading her team in the North Dakota Youth Football League to the Michigan linebacker doing double duty as Homecoming Queen , these girls should be proof to everyone that they have a place in traditionally male-dominated sports.

A 9-year-old girl is going viral for filling an empty lip balm tube with cheese ?

what went viral this week a new dads labor support skills 0 Kids can be incredibly creative and a 9-year-old girl’s journey to viral stardom proves that little minds can think up things adults would never dream of. As Buzzfeed reports, the girl’s mom Valerie Schremp Hahn, posted a pic of the secret cheese to Twitter, noting “My 9-year-old daughter has taken an old lip balm tube and filled it with cheese so she can eat in class.” Twitter users thought this was hilarious and called the child a genius, but she’s not taking credit for the idea. “I was just looking on YouTube because I was bored and I found this video and I decided to do it,” the girl (whose mom is not sharing her name ) said. Although to give her credit the video suggested using a glue stick, so the lip balm hack is kind of her thing. Even the school’s principal was impressed with the girl’s ingenuity and says her cheese hack is getting a shout out in the next school newsletter. ?

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