“My Husband Is in Tears” — Woman Accosts Dad for Yelling at His Daughter While Teaching Her to Read

"I'm just praying that I didn't do the wrong thing, but I couldn't take it anymore," TikToker Jen Hamilton (@_jen_hamilton_) says at the top of a viral video that's accumulated over 10.4 million views.

She goes on to detail how she and her family traveled to a local restaurant, Sir Pizza, for dinner one evening. While they're sitting in a booth and enjoying their meal, she says her husband elbowed her.

This catches Jen's attention. He asks her if she's "listening to that." What he was referring to was the way another customer was interacting with his daughter. She said that the child was "maybe 5 years old" and that she started listening in on the conversation. Jen was stunned by the manner in which this man spoke to the kid.

"This little girl was in tears. 'What did I do, Daddy? What did I do?'" the child was saying over and over again while talking to her father. Further investigating the situation, Jen says that she begins to pick up on what was going on between the dad and his daughter: The man was attempting to teach her how to read.

"He's angry at this very young child for not being able to read the menu," she says before giving an example of the way the man was speaking to his child. He castigated the young girl for just "making up a word" that comes into her head as she's attempting to read the menu. This angered the man who couldn't understand why his daughter wasn't able to give a better effort at reading.

"You're not even trying. You're just going to grow up to be a dummy," Jen says she heard the dad say to his little daughter. "When I tell you my soul exploded out of my ears," the TikToker continued, commenting on how much it hurt to hear the man speak to his child in such a manner.

Following this exchange, she exited the booth, as she couldn't "take it anymore" and she approached the father talking with his daughter: "And I knelt down next to this man and I said, 'I understand what you're trying to do. I understand you want her to learn to read. I understand that."

She continued, "'But in these moments, she's only going to remember how you made her feel.' And my heart was pounding cause I'm like, 'Is this man going to punch me in my teeth?' Cause I did ... feel that way towards him, little bit, that I was feeling that way. So maybe me coming at him, he would want to punch me in the teeth."

Jen continued to explain what happened during the exchange between her and the man at the restaurant. "But you know what this man said? 'I know, I know.'"

It seemed like he immediately snapped out of his frustration with his child. "I said, 'Sometimes the way that we treat other people is a direct reflection of how we were treated as children.'"

The message seemed to sink in for the man. "And he's shaking his head, yeah. I said, 'So you know how that feels. He said, 'I've been working on it and other people have said the same thing to me.' And he said, 'You know other people have told me the same thing.'"

She doubled down on her message and stated that "'if other people are telling you the same thing, that requires some introspection.' He said, 'I just get so frustrated. I said, 'I know. I've been there.'"

Jen went on to state that it's up to him, as an adult, to be strong enough in these moments to not give in to his feelings but to be cognizant of the situation and make strong choices: "But sometimes if you feel you're to that point where you're going to be mean, it's better to say nothing."

The TikToker continued, "And I'm scared for her. I'm scared what if I made it worse. I just hope that one day she doesn't find comfort and solace in that kind of language cause she doesn't deserve to feel that way. I want her to know that it's not okay for somebody to talk to her like that."

Jen expressed her fear that the man's daughter would somehow become acclimated to this type of language. And, as abusive or hurtful as it is, will become a source of comfort for her. "I just hope that I'm not the only one who sticks up for her," she says at the end of the clip.

Some of the comments left by other folks who responded to her video didn't seem to think that the message got through. One person penned: "The crazy thing is, abuse is always worse behind closed doors."

However, a remark by someone else made it seem like they believed the young girl's father was affected by Jen's commentary: "The way he responded tells me he truly HEARD you. Hopefully, he’s mortified, apologized to that sweet baby girl, and took her for ice cream."