‘Boomer’ Parents Have Sweetest Reaction to Adult Daughter Sounding Stressed

A woman has shared footage to TikTok of the moment her elderly parents arrived on her doorstep, just 20 minutes after talking to her on the phone because they were worried she had sounded “stressed” on the call.

Kerri Paul, 42, took to the social media platform to share a video she jokingly describes as “proof that helicopter parenting doesn’t end past the age of 18.” In the clip, her parents, Robert and Eleanor Jones, aged 80 and 78 respectively, can be seen rolling up outside her home in Gulfport, Mississippi, unannounced to lend a hand. What they are there to lend a hand for isn’t entirely clear.

“When your boomer parents drive 20 minutes to ‘see about you’ because you sounded stressed on your morning phone call,” the video’s text overlay reads.

Paul was having some renovations done on the backyard at the time and busy moving furniture out of the way of the contractors while also looking after her young son when her mom called. Yet there was something that made Eleanor jump into action. “I could tell in her voice that things just didn’t sound right. When I heard my little grandson in the background, I didn’t know what he’s saying, but he said something that triggered me,” Eleanor told Newsweek.

Robert and Eleanor live in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and thought little of making the 32-mile trip to their daughter’s house to see what was going on. “It’s important to take care of your adult kids as well as your grandkids,” Eleanor said.

Paul was still surprised and amused to see them though. “I am 42 years old with three kids, a husband and three restaurants and they still think I need guidance,” she told Newsweek.

But while Paul thought the reaction of her “boomer” parents was amusing enough to post to social media, those watching the clip had an entirely different reaction. “As a millennial, I thought it was funny that I’m up here trying to raise my kids and do my own thing and look at my parents coming over here to rescue me,” she said. “I thought it would resonate with other millennials like ‘oh my god.’ But actually most people had the opposite reaction.”

“This is what it means to have people,” one TikTok user commented on the clip, which has already been watched 2.6 million times.

A second user wrote: “Not everyone has family who shows up for them like this. Never take it for granted,” with a third adding: “This is why I want to live near my kids forever.”

It’s a response that highlights a potential shift in the perception surrounding the term “helicopter parenting.” Though it’s understandable for parents to want their kids to be happy and healthy, there’s a school of thought that suggests individuals need space to learn and grow on their own. A 2018 study published in the journal Developmental Psychology found controlling parents can negatively impact a child’s ability to manage emotions and behavior.

However, a 2024 Pew Research Center survey found 31 percent of young adults rely heavily on their parents for emotional support, while the majority of those polled turn to their moms and dads for advice on topics like their careers, finances and physical health. The same poll saw 61 percent say they text with their parents and 46 percent say they talk on the phone or video chat with them a few times a week or at least once a day.

But while their actions may have drawn praise on social media, the response to the video has left Robert and Eleanor somewhat surprised, with Paul’s parents viewing their response as an entirely natural one. “It’s just two people coming to the door of a house and everybody thought that was unusual,” Robert told Newsweek. “Matt [Paul’s husband] was out of town and I wanted to make sure I was there helping my daughter.”

“It’s the way we were brought up as children,” Eleanor added. “Our parents were always hovering and if I ever felt alone, no matter what happened, I could always call my mom or dad even as an adult and that’s how I want my children to feel.”

Paul too might have poked fun at their “helicopter parenting,” but she’s the first to acknowledge how much her parents are there for her. “I own three restaurants. When we opened the first one about five years ago it wasn’t uncommon to see my mom bussing tables, washing dishes, cleaning, whatever,” she said.

Even on that particular day, when her parents turned up unannounced, they ended up being a major help. “My dad, who used to be an engineer, came and started poking around. And once he looked at the project, he changed it all up because it wasn’t to his standards. So actually they did help a lot,” she said. “That is not uncommon either. I renovated my entire house a year and a half ago and my dad was here working. He did the electrics for me.”

Part of it, Paul said, is down to the fact that it’s “family first in the south always.” The family regularly gets together for cookouts, while Eleanor’s kindness even extends beyond the family into helping out at St. Stephen’s Pantry, a local food bank.

“When my mom had surgery last December we all came together and stayed with her for a few days just to help out my dad who was a little stressed out,” Paul said. “That was very common, when I was growing up. We all lived on the same street. All my cousins were next door neighbors. If one wasn’t there to help if my parents had to go somewhere running an errand, we would just go down to my aunt’s house and my grandmother. It’s just a way of life.”

Even so, she said the response to the video has given her some pause for thought. “There’s a whole side of the world and culture where people don’t have this sense of family like we do,” she said. “It’s times like this that make you understand how great it is to have this and how important it is to have family.”