A mom’s empty Christmas stocking led to a TikTok video overflowing with comments.
In the viral footage, Utah dad Josh Jones, 33, films a room filled with Christmas stockings. There’s one for Josh, each child — and even the family dog. Wait — but what's that over there? Suddenly Josh spots an empty stocking.
“Whose is this?” Josh asks from behind the camera. “Is this an extra one?”
“No, that’s mine,” Josh’s wife Aubree Jones says with a little laugh.
When Josh inquires as to why Aubree’s stocking is empty, she replies quietly, “I don’t know. Santa didn’t come for me.”
“It took him 10 years to notice it’s been empty this whole time,” Aubree captioned the clip, which was titled a "PSA for husbands everywhere."
"It was supposed to be a lighthearted thing to show what moms go through," Aubree, 35, tells TODAY.com.
But the internet wasn't laughing.
“All of us women felt that in our stomach. That hurt,” one person wrote in the comments.
Added another, “I got a bit teary.. you can tell there is some pain behind the ‘that’s mine.’”
Other reactions included:
- "The little girl in her felt so left out."
- "Whenever I’m confused about something, I say 'I feel like a dad on Christmas morning,' and I'd like to think it hits home with my husband."
- "This is a good example that mom does all the stuff and nobody notices."
- "I would’ve been divorced.
- "This literally broke my heart."
“I know it looks like I was sad sitting off to the side with no gifts surrounding me, but I wasn’t sad at all,” Aubree says. “I was doing what most moms do, which is just enjoying my kids being happy on Christmas morning.”
“There was a lot of unnecessary negativity directed at Josh,” she adds.
The video was filmed in 2021, but the couple shared it last month after discovering the clip on Aubree's phone. Aubree says Josh redeemed himself the following year, and she woke up to a stocking loaded with thoughtful goodies.
“It was a really pleasant surprise, and the morning felt extra special for me,” Aubree shares.
“I listened,” Josh says. “I’m not the best historically with gifts, but it’s one of Aubree’s love languages and I’ve gotten way better.”
Aubree and Josh, who are parents of daughters Trendy, 11, Zaylee, 9, Sunny, 7, Truly, 5, and Journey, 1, will welcome their 6th child any day now.
“I deliver at home. We have a midwife come in, but I don’t have a nurse afterwards,” Aubree says. “And that’s because I have Josh. He waits on me hand and foot. He’s the best husband.”
Though Aubree and Josh have posted follow-up videos and responded to the backlash, people are still incensed.
Shawnda Patterson, a motivational speaker and dating coach, used Aubree's video as an example of why more and more women are choosing not to get married.
"The holiday magic that that woman created for everyone — even down to the fact that the dog had a Christmas stocking — and … no attention was paid to her. No effort. No nothing. She’s just over there watching everybody enjoy everything," Patterson said in a TikTok video that she stitched with Aubree's. “Single women are watching married women.”