One proud mother is praising her son for his courage and responsibility, as he became a single dad at the age of 16.
TikTok user @elleann040 frequently posts videos of her son and granddaughter on her social media accounts.
In one of the videos she uploaded that was captioned with: “So proud of you for stepping up even though it was scary as f*** #singledad #teenpregnancy,” @elleann040 gushed about her son’s bravery.
“I love my son and granddaughter,” she said. “Your mistakes don’t define you.”
She also explained how her 16-year-old son has full custody of the baby.
“When you have a baby at 16,” she wrote in the video. The TikTok clip then showed several photos of the baby girl being hugged by her teen dad and grandmother.
At the time of this writing, the heartwarming post gathered 243,000 views, with many TikTok users praising the teenage dad.
“Wow, he’s only 16! Amazing for him stepping in!” one person commented. “Kudos mom, for raising a loving, compassionate, young man to take on a HUGE responsibility.”
“So proud. He stepped up to raise his baby girl and many grown men run away from this,” another user has added. “Hope you will have joy and lots of blessings.”
“Babies are the only ‘mistakes’ that are beautiful and joyful blessings,” another one has said. “Everything happens for a reason and you all needed her for sure.”
The proud grandmother then responded to this comment by stating: “That’s right I didn’t mean my granddaughter was a mistake.”
In a follow-up TikTok post, @elleann040 gave a little more detail to the backstory of how her son became a single dad at 16.
“I want to share this story about my granddaughter because I am so proud of her and my son, but I want to be respectful to the baby’s mom and her and my son because it is their story,” the mother said.
She said that when she found out about the baby in July this year, she has “never fallen in love with a picture so quickly.”
“We picked the baby up on Saturday and brought her back home with us, I won’t share the details but mom wasn’t ready to be a mom full time,” the grandmother said. “But we celebrate her, and in this house, she is a unicorn because she is the hero of this story.”
@elleann040 said that the baby will get to spend time with her biological mother, explaining that they will never try to prevent a relationship between the child and her mom.
For the past 3 weeks, the baby has lived with her dad and grandmother.
“It has been overwhelming and emotional,” she said. “To tell you the last three weeks have been insane would be an understatement but the baby is here and she is doing really well.”
“Everything is changing really quickly,” she added. “My son is adjusting to being a dad, and we’re adjusting to being grandparents.”
“Her nursery is done and her playroom is on the way and we just hope we can give the baby the best life possible and we can help my son to raise her to be a strong, brilliant, brave woman,” she said.