Daughter asks if she can finally call her stepmom 'mom' after 7 years of waiting — and the internet's sobbing

A 15-year-old (u/common_willow1483) has always had a beautiful relationship with her stepmom, but never really called her 'mother.' So, on July 5, 2025, the teenager turned to Reddit to ask how she could possibly start calling her father's wife "mom" without making it awkward. When the post went viral, and people continued to bombard her with questions related to whether she could muster the courage to finally make the leap, the author posted another update, detailing the heartfelt moment.

The teen's birth mother had left when she was about 2 years old, and only when she turned 8 did her father marry her stepmother. Dad's new wife was one kind soul who accepted the author as her own, standing up for her as only a loving mother would. "She kind of gave me the mother figure that I was missing," the teenager confessed. The stepmom had a daughter from her previous relationship who had also found a father figure in the author's dad, and as a whole, they'd turned into one big happy family. The teenager was always very fond of her stepmother but had a tough time bridging the last layer of an invisible gap in their relationship. "I've been thinking about calling her Mom, but I'm not sure about it or how I would start it, like if I should just randomly call her Mom or I should actually ask if I can," she wrote.

Confused, the teenager confided in her stepsister, who said she should directly start calling her "Mom" without any prior discussion, but the author wasn't fully ready for that yet. Two days after her first post, on July 8, the author returned to discuss how the moment they had been contemplating had actually unfolded in the most beautiful way possible. She decided to throw caution to the wind and do it randomly, as all the weight of planning was becoming a greater burden than the task at hand. When the author's stepmom was back home from work, the author asked, "Hey, Mom, how was work?", leaving her completely speechless. "She immediately turned her head towards me and asked me to repeat what I had said, and I did, and like a lot of people, guessed she started tearing up," the teenager recalled.

Overcome with emotions, her stepmom pulled the author into a bone-crushing hug while sharing how she never saw her any differently from her own kids. "My dad was also happy. And thankfully, after that, they stopped making it a big deal so that it wouldn't get awkward for me," they added. Now, while several novels and films have always portrayed step-parents as villains, the reality may not be so ugly. In fact, a survey examining more than 700 step-parents found that 61% of them reported good relationships with their stepchildren. Meanwhile, reacting to a heartfelt story, u/taffybitee commented, "For real. That one word probably meant more to her than she could ever explain. OP gave her something she’s likely hoped for but never expected. It’s beautiful."

Similarly, u/ambitiousad560 shared, "Reading this took me back to the day 'my babies' first called me 'mom.' At first (like you), I thought I hadn’t heard correctly, but then I realized I had. I didn’t know what to do, but I wanted someone to teach me how to do a cartwheel right then and there lol. I will say this: even though I already loved them to the moon and back, that gave me an extra little oomph to put on my cape and tights to try to be 'Super Mom' in every way I am capable of."