What do you do when your child is ignoring your phone calls, because they are busy with an online game? A US mum has gone viral after sharing pictures of how she had to track down her 11-year-old daughter on the online multiplayer game, Roblox, when the tween kept ignoring her phone calls.
Chicago-based Chariel Watson was calling her daughter, Miracle, to remind her to take lasagna and garlic bread out of the freezer so it could thaw for dinner. However, Miracle didn't answer the call and kept playing, because pausing would mean losing progress in the game.
Also read:
- Daughter’s 7-second viral TikTok clip helps save her father’s Vietnamese restaurant in the US
- Watch: Heartwarming viral video shows man teaching grandma how to use a smart TV, wins the internet
- Viral: TikTok goes on a global treasure hunt for a dress that a woman wanted to rent for a day
- Viral: Man flies from UK to Italy to buy a pizza, spends less than ordering it in
Not ready to give up, the mum decided to log into the game. She found her daughter in the Berry Avenue game and gave her the instructions in the chatbox, while playing the game with her.
“Take the lasagna out of the freezer and the garlic bread so I can cook it,” the mum’s avatar told the daughter’s avatar in the game.
Watson posted screenshots of the game on Facebook, to share the hilarious measures she had to take to contact her daughter. In the caption, along with a crying-face emoji, the mum wrote: "When my baby doesn’t answer the phone, I pull up on ROBLOX."
The post saw netizens taking to the comment section to tag their friends who have tween children, many found the situation hilarious.
Posting crying-face emojis, Facebook user Kierra Latrice commented: "...that's how you got to do them these days."
Another Facebook user Genesis Castillo tagged her sister and wrote: "This is what you guys have to do with the little ones."
Some mums commented about what they would do in such a situation.
Facebook user Terre Labaire posted: "I love this, but at 11, they better be answering when I call or I’ll own that Roblox for a while. I put remotes, chargers, and game things in the freezer. TVs in my trunk, I’ll take that phone maybe not for long, but long enough to un-freeze their brain that doesn’t work yet. It worked pretty good. What if there were an emergency?"
After her story went viral, Watson and her daughter were invited to The Jennifer Hudson Show, a US television chat show. In the episode that was aired on February 7, Watson was heard explaining to Hudson: “She was on the game and I was trying to get ahold of her, and she wasn’t picking up the phone.”
Watson said she eventually jumped on the game and found her daughter's avatar. “As I joined her game, she was in a white car… I jumped in the car with her. I was like, ‘I know you see me calling you!’”
“I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I know I’m in trouble!’” recalled Miracle.
The mother-daughter duo often play Roblox together, said Watson. So, she didn’t think twice before logging in to find her daughter.
In an article on blockclubchicago.org, a nonprofit news website based in Chicago, Watson is a comedian who frequently posts funny videos online about what’s going on in her life. She has gone viral a few times, but her Roblox post “takes the cake,” she said.
While the lighthearted moment went viral, Watson doesn’t necessarily suggest it as a long-term strategy to get kids’ attention, says the article. “I’d say to parents: Don’t just download Roblox to look for your kids and tell them what to do, but go in there to play some games with them and get to know your kids,” Watson said, according to the report
