Warning: This article mentions suicide
A mum who received backlash after she was filmed giving her teenager a hug at his football game has shared his response on the matter.
Utah mum Amber Wright was criticised after she hugged her 16-year-old son, Brixton, after his team won a home game by throwing her arms and legs around him while he picked her up.
Posting the now infamous clip on Instagram on 18 August, she wrote: “This boy will forever and always have my entire heart. Gina captured the end of this moment, and I’m SO grateful.
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"When I walked up to hug my baby boy after his game, he immediately picked me up and just held me. It may have been 20 seconds, 30 seconds, a minute, I have no idea. But in this moment, time stood completely still.
"I honestly don’t know what I did to deserve you @brix_wright but I am thankful every second of every single day for you."
The mum defended her character and the hug by sharing the text messages sent by her son to someone who messaged him about the viral video.
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“My mom is my hero,” the teen’s response begins. “I was just giving her a hug after the game and I did pick her up she did not jump on me. My mom’s been the only person there for me my whole life. I grew up with an alcoholic dad who would just come and go when he wanted he was great when he was sober but he wasn’t he was just so dark and different.”
Brixton goes on to explain that his dad never showed up at his games and sadly ended his life.
He wrote: ‘He never rlly showed up to any of my games or anything like that my moms been to every single some since I’ve played [sic]. My dad ended up committing suicide last year and this year I changed my number to 44 bc it was his death date (4/4/21).
“It was her first time seeing me wear it in person so obviously she was very emotional and so was I. all it was was a big hug from me to her.”
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Amber said her son’s text left her ‘BAWLING’ as she wrote a response to the people questioning her parenting style.
“For those who are ‘concerned’ about the welfare of my son and the relationship he and I have… here’s just a tiny tiny tiny snippet of a response he sent to someone about the viral 4 second video of he and I hugging.
“Attack, judge, criticise, ridicule, try and break me down. You won’t ever be able to because I am beyond blessed to have THIS. I will take allllllllll the negativity in the world thrown my way and I will continue to hold my head high and raise this incredible young man to overcome any and all adversity. Little does he know, he is MY hero.”
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Days after the controversy erupted, she took to Instagram on Monday (18 September) to make it very clear that the video was ‘literally a hug’ she shared with her son.
"If you're one of the people that happens to see something immoral or sexual or wrong with it then I'm just going to say that's on you," Amber said.
She referenced a few of the responses to the video of the hug and called them 'disgraceful', 'disrespectful' and 'crude', but made it clear she was 'not going to take [the video] down'.
"I didn't do anything wrong," the mum added.
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She added that she had received some 'positive' and 'supportive' comments, but overall, she said that 'we just have to do better as a society' and 'we should all be kind to each other'.
"We live in a society where we're trying to teach our kids not to bully and we're preaching that we all should love one another [...] it just seems very hypocritical...," she said.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123
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Gregory Robinson