This One Image Perfectly Sums Up Parenting

A Reddit user shared a photo this week that so perfectly sums up parenting it went viral almost immediately. It’s been viewed over 3,000,000 times.

The pair is walking through downpour, and dad’s shirt is completely soaked while his son stays safely dry under the umbrella. Is this the perfect visual metaphor for parenting or what?

Yes. It is. We put our kids first all the time: whether it’s eating cold food, cuddling their snotty faces even though we know we’re inhaling their germs, or (insert random selfless act that parents do daily, here). The image is adorable, and clearly touched the hearts of many to be viewed and shared this many times in less than three days.

Of course, this is the internet – so plenty of people had solutions for what they simply saw as “poor umbrella-ing.”

Give the umbrella to the kid. Hold the kid. Problem solved.

B-but… The umbrella looks big enough for two…

RAIN JACKETS MOTHERFUCKER

No, there are far more ways to solve this than getting totally soaked.

And there was a fair amount of mommyjacking:

Moms = get umbrellas enough for everyone.. 🙂

No mother would ever do this.

…and a mum would have made sure the kid was sent to school with a raincoat on in the first place haha.

Moms would have brought two umbrellas.

Then there were just the random out-of-nowhere observations the internet is great for:

All fun and games ’til Dad gets pneumonia and dies. Enjoy the Orphanage kid!

Men not wearing undershirts is becoming an epidemic.

What you don’t realize is that he’s actually taking the umbrella from the child.

God, I love the internet. Bottom line – this image is cute as heck. Whatever the reason dad decided not to try to seek shelter – the kid is dry and the photo is perfect.