"This Touched My Soul" — Internet Praises Mom Who Healed Her Foster Kid's Marshmallow "Trigger"
Published July 21 2023, 2:09 p.m. ET
Each year, foster children enter a new home under the guidance of foster parents. As noble as taking in a child you didn’t give birth to is, many foster parents admittedly face challenges that parents raising their kids from the beginning don’t have.
On TikTok, a foster parent shared how a snack run with her foster child triggered the young girl in ways she didn’t realize until now.
Keep reading to see the beautiful way she ensured her child felt safe and heard in the household.
Stock photo
A foster kid told their foster parent how marshmallows helped her through a difficult period.
In July 2023, a TikTok user named Grace (@one_more_arrow) took to her platform and discussed one of her foster children, a young girl named Firecracker. For some backstory, Grace has been a foster and adoptive parent for over seven years and often posts online about raising her children.
During this particular TikTok post, Grace focused on her shopping trip to Target with Firecracker and her other daughter Violet. Grace said the Target run was to allow Firecracker to find “outfits, a book, and a snack” she likes without any influence from the other children in the house. When they arrived at the store, Grace told Firecracker to pick out whatever she wanted, which was a bag of marshmallows.
On their way home from the shopping spree, Firecracker, who had already opened the bag of marshmallows and had begun eating them, asked Grace if she knew how versatile marshmallows could be.
“Did you know that sometimes marshmallows is hard, and sometimes marshmallows is just marshmallows, and sometimes marshmallows is s'mores?” Grace said to the camera as Firecracker.
Grace said she asked Firecracker to explain further what she meant. She said her foster kid told her she would eat marshmallows in the home she lived in before Grace and her husband took her in. However, the marshmallows were a coping mechanism for the triggering moments she experienced in Firecracker’s former home.
“When things were going on that were not safe, I'll just kind of leave it at that, she would go into the pantry, and she said she would lick the marshmallows until somebody could get her food to eat,” Grace explained in her TikTok. “And they were hard. They were hard as rocks. Because they were probably old, and she remembered that.”
The foster parent continued saying Firecracker’s experience with marshmallows was so triggering she previously declined eating s’mores during a family outing. The child apologized for not eating the s’more then, and Grace told her it was “OK” that she didn’t want to eat it.
However, when her “daddy” made s’mores, Firecracker ate one, which is when she discovered her initial theory that “sometimes marshmallows is hard, and sometimes marshmallows is just marshmallows, and sometimes marshmallows is s'mores.”
The sweet baby then asked Grace if she could keep the marshmallows in the bottom pantry to snack on whenever she wanted. Grace happily accepted but added a generous, considerate bonus. While placing the marshmallows in a container, Grace promised to keep Firecracker’s marshmallows fresh and soft.
“They won't be hard, baby girl,” Grace said as she put the stored marshmallows in the bottom pantry. “And we'll use them for s'mores.”
I’m not crying; you are!
The TikToker’s viewers applauded her for being the parent her foster kid deserves.
Since Grace posted her heartfelt story of parenting done right, the TikToker has gained over 290,000 views on her video. She also received over 900 comments from viewers who praised her for showing Firecracker the love she likely didn’t have before she entered Grace’s home.
“The outright BRAVERY for her to choose marshmallows when she had so much trauma with them. Sweet, brave, beautiful girl,” one commenter wrote.
“Bless her heart, I’m in tears,” another said. “May she never have to be in a situation like that again ever.”
“I'm BAWLING over here,” a third user admitted. “Firecracker will never have to eat hard marshmallows again.”
"God love that baby. This touched my soul. Keep doing good work, mom!" another wrote.
Several TikTokers also shared their experiences of growing up in foster care and having food “triggers” they didn’t realize they had until they watched Grace’s TikTok.
Hopefully, foster parents like Grace will allow the upcoming generation of foster children to exist as kids and always have fresh snacks in their pantries.
