When Alabama mom Kyesha Smith Wood learned her teenage daughter and stepdaughter were blatantly rude to another moviegoer during a recent screening of Cinderella, she went out of her way to find the offended woman and make things right.
“This is a long shot, but I’m looking for a woman that was at Tannehill Premiere tonight seeing Cinderella at 7pm. I dropped my teenage daughter, step daughter, and son off at the movie. My son later told me, much to my humiliation and embarrassment, that my girls were rude and obnoxious during the movie,” Kyesha said on Facebook. “The woman I’m looking for addressed them and asked them to be quiet and they were disrespectful. After the movie she approached my girls and told them that her husband had been laid off and this was the last movie she would be able to take her daughter to for a while and my girls ruined that for her. If you are this woman, please message me.”
Kyesha explained the girls were being “appropriately punished” for their “rude, disrespectful, and awful behavior.” She added the teens were going to write an apology letter and would pay for the other woman to go back to the movies with money from their allowances.
The post quickly went viral, with more than 5,600 shares to date. Among those who saw the message was Rebecca Boyd, the woman from the movie.
“I was very upset and disappointed in the girls’ behavior… The note from their mom brought me to tears and shows there is still good people in the world,” Rebecca said on Facebook. “I have no hard feelings towards them and I am proud of their parents. The girls are not bad… they are children.”
Although Kyesha has been getting a lot of praise for correcting her daughters’ behavior, she told ABC 33/40 she thinks Rebecca is the one who deserves acclaim.
“She’s the most gracious, kind and forgiving woman. I am so humbled by that and I’ve been telling people the real hero of the story is her,” Kyesha said. “She took it upon herself to correct my girls and one else around them did.”
In addition to admiration from other parents, Rebecca and her family seem to be getting something even better out of the situation: ABC 33/40 reports the family has received a number of job offers.
