A mom looking through the camera roll on her teenage daughter’s phone was stopped in her tracks by an unexpected video.
When Kaleba and Keena Harris from Utah gifted their 14-year-old daughter a smartphone, they did so while establishing a “set of expectations around phone usage and internet safety.”
“A cellphone is more than a piece of technology. If used wrongly, it can be a weapon that puts physical, intellectual and emotional safety at risk,” Keena Harris told Newsweek.
The Harris family are far from outliers when it comes to giving their child a smartphone. The Pew Research Center found that 37 percent of parents with 9- to 11-year-olds say their child has a smartphone.
However, what differentiates the Harris family from many others is that they had their daughter sign an agreement establishing a set of parameters to ensure she “would be safe as she learned proper communication and phone usage skills.”
“One of those parameters is phone checks;” Harris said, “a simple scroll through her phone to make sure all is safe.”
It was during one of these checks that Harris made the most unexpected of discoveries. “One night, as I was scrolling through her photos, I spotted a video of my husband and me laying together on our trampoline,” she said.
“Her camera roll is filled with cute shots of her and her friends, so this particular video caught me by surprise. I clicked to watch it, and it immediately made me tear up.”
It was a brief clip of Harris and her husband cuddled close on the trampoline, enjoying an affectionate moment together. The icing on the cake was the caption their daughter had added. It read simply: “I love my parents.”
“I had no clue she had taken it,” Harris said. “I showed my husband, and together we thought we must be doing all right for her to film this and say she loves us.”
Instagram/iloveahappyending
Harris and her husband were clearly doing more than all right. In 2018, an analysis published in the journal the Handbook of Parenting and Child Development Across the Lifespan highlighted the link between positive aspects of parental relationships, like intimacy and affection, with positive child adjustment.
At this moment, Harris’s daughter was presenting a tangible example of this. In a world of short-form videos and social trends, their daughter was focusing on what truly matters: family and love.
“I know we aren’t perfect, but I’m glad she sees our relationship in a positive light. Our marriage is the number one thing we are most proud of,” Harris said. “It pays off to know she sees our love.”
Eager to celebrate this moment, Harris posted the heartwarming clip to her Instagram @iloveahappyending, where it took off.
“I thought the video would be cute to share with my followers,” Harris said. “I underestimated how many people it would resonate with! It went mega viral, and I was so happy to see so many people finding joy in a simple family moment.”
Harris added that she hopes those who have come across the clip see it for what it is: proof that happy families do exist. “Life isn’t perfect, and, a lot of days, I feel like I’m falling short as a parent,” she said.
“But in this small, unexpected moment, I was reminded that even when we feel like we’re not enough, our children often see the best in us. And that perspective is something truly worth celebrating.”
