11-Year-Old Shares Powerful Lesson on Trauma, Leaving Her Mom 'in Shock' in Viral Video (Exclusive)
The moment highlights the young girl's wisdom beyond her years
Her mom hopes the video serves as a reminder that moms can have open relationships with their daughters, even as they growA heartwarming TikTok video features a daughter teaching her mother a valuable lesson as they enjoy a day out by the lake.
Makenzie Curtis, a single mom, shared a video of her 11-year-old, Rylie, guiding her through an exercise designed to release past traumas. The video begins with Makenzie and Rylie gathering rocks by the lakeside.
Rylie instructs her mother to name the 'biggest bad thing' that has ever happened to her, stacking a rock for each negative experience. As Makenzie piles the rocks, the structure becomes increasingly unstable. 'It's hard, isn't it,' Rylie observes, 'You have to improvise, don't you? So we have to pull other things in just to balance it.'
The tower eventually collapses, prompting Rylie to throw the rocks into the lake, declaring, 'It doesn't matter. Why care about all the bad things that have happened? They don't matter.'
Speaking with PEOPLE, Makenzie reflects on her initial thoughts when she realized the lesson she was being taught. 'I was in shock,' she says, 'I really think that she was trying to symbolize letting it go. These things don't matter anymore. We're gonna literally throw them into the lake and never going to see them again, because they don't matter anymore. We can't keep hanging on to them.'
In the video, the pair go on to collect flatter, more stable rocks, representing positive experiences and qualities. These rocks are easily stacked on top of each other, creating a balanced tower. Rylie says in the viral clip, 'With the bad things, we have to pull something else that wasn't ours and we had to put it in to make a tower.'
She continues, 'But in this, all we used was the things that we had and we could make it balance.'
At this moment, Makenzie realized her daughter's wisdom, she says, and now, hopes she can continue to foster it.
'I really just want to make sure that she has the tools she needs when she gets older, so she doesn't have to go through the same stuff I did,' Makenzie notes, declining to elaborate on her own past traumas.
Since posting the video, Makenzie has received an array of feedback. While many praised the video's message and Rylie's insightful approach, others criticized the mom for not sharing her specific experiences with her daughter.
She defended her decision, saying that some stories are not appropriate for children to hear. 'I try to be authentic in everything that I do, and things that came to mind were things that I needed to let go of,' she notes.
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Makenzie hopes other mothers will take away the importance of authenticity from her experience, adding, 'I hope other mothers know that they do not have to show up perfectly for their kids.'
She continues, 'They want your unconditional love. They want to know that no matter what happens in their life, you know they can come to you like you're home base. You're a safe place, and it's okay if you make mistakes.'
For Makenzie, the experience with Rylie has reinforced the idea that healing is an ongoing process, and that children can be powerful teachers.
'I realized how much I needed to forgive myself because those things weren't my fault, and I was just beating myself up over and over again … I had to realize that.'
As Makenzie continues to heal from her past, she hopes to continue to build with her daughter by opening up more as she gets older. She adds, 'I know she trusts me. I know she loves me. I have always been her safe place, the person that she confides in, the person that she knows that no matter what, she can come to mom.'
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