Man Says His Mom Has No Idea How to Break Bad News — Seems Like It’s a Common Problem

TiKToker Brandon Grogan (@brandongrogancooks) posted a video on TikTok in the hopes of finding out if other people have encountered the same issue with their mother as he does: not being able to receive bad news in a "normal" way.

It turns out, that there are more than a few people who've got the same problem.

"This is just me but does anyone else have a mom who has no clue how to break bad news like a normal person?" he says, pushing some ingredients from a plate onto a pan.

He then scoops out some tomato paste from a can, "This is a real conversation I had with my mom. Hey Brandon I have bad news, there's a good chance I'm gonna go blind."

He continues, "I'm like oh my God that's awful, it's not genetic right? She's like, no, no, I got an ingrown eyelash and I read online that if not properly treated it can lead to blindness," he throws his hands up in the air as he looks to the camera and goes on speaking.

"Now I don't think that would ever happen, but what the f---- you call me for sounds like you should go get this treated."

Continuing with his theme of cooking while talking into the camera, his clip cuts to him pouring some salt into a pot of water. My mom also had a bad memory so sometimes this happens, she'll have like bad news and then she'll be like hey you know how your Great Grandpa has cancer, right?"

He pours some dry pasta into the boiling water, "Nope, nope, I had no clue this is the first time I'm ever hearing of this. Great woman, but there's never like a, hey are you sitting down right now? It's more like, hey you're driving down the highway going 70 miles per hour and you got my on speakerphone via your car's Bluetooth, right?"

"All right good glad you have a second," he quips, pouring cream into a pain making what looks like the finishing touches of his pasta sauce. By the time his video's done, so is the video. He shows off the pasta bowl garnished with herbs at the end of the clip, stating, "Anyways we cooked some pasta a la vodka."

As it turns out, there were other people who could relate to his story, like one TikToker who wrote that they, too, have a mom who isn't the best when it comes to breaking bad news.

In this particular instance, however, it doesn't have to do with an ailing family member, or freaking out over something they read on WebMD.

Instead, it has to do with the death of a family pet.

Lauren (@_laurenrosee1) stitched his video, which then cuts to a screenshot of a text message conversation she had with her mother. There's a picture of a cat in their text: "R.I.P. - tiki (I put her down tonight ) sweet dreams [fading rose emoji]"

She responds to her: "Why didn't you tell me !" followed by two crying emojis.

"I am telling you," her mother writes in a reply.

Another TikToker provided yet another example of a mom who wasn't too great at breaking bad news to someone.

Andy (@andyzzroom) shared a tragic story of how she learned that her boyfriend at the time ended up passing away in a car accident.

The TikToker says that initially there was some confusion surrounding the accident because investigators initially thought that there may have been a girl involved in the auto wreck.

However, this confusion was just chalked up to the fact that Andy's departed former boyfriend had "really long hair." Her boyfriend's mom ended up calling her mother to check and make sure Andy wasn't with him, and when Andy's mom went to her room, she found her daughter fast asleep.

The mom, who just lost her son, told Andy's mother to inform her daughter that her boyfriend didn't survive the wreck and that she should probably inform Andy right when she wakes up so "she doesn't find out through somebody else."

Andy's mom ended up going back to bed, and it appears that the TikToker woke up before her mother got a chance to tell her the news, because she ended up receiving a message from someone else she never met before who told her he had passed away in the car accident.

At this point in the video, things take a dark turn, as Andy flips out because her boyfriend didn't respond to her messages from the night before. Her younger sister "made fun" of her, which Andy says was rooted in her just being a kid and attempting to assure her that he was fine.

Her mother then tells Andy that her boyfriend "probably killed himself to get away from [her]."

Andy went to school anyway not knowing what was going on, stating that she was "bawling her eyes out the entire time," after her name sounded off over the intercom at school and she was notified that her mother was there to pick her up.

After getting into the car, she immediately asks her mom what's going on, but her parents don't tell her anything. It wasn't until her boyfriend's family rang her up to tell her that he died, but Andy didn't know until a week later that they had given her mom a ring after they learned it had happened, urging her to tell the young woman so she didn't find out from someone else.