“Why Would You Do That?” — Mom Crashes College Son’s Night out at Club, Gets Backlash Online

A mom who surprised her son in college while he was in the club is being criticized online. Jessica Tapscott (@jtapscott) posted a video of her dancing beside her son while he was having a night out on her TikTok account. And there were throngs of people who expressed that they didn't find her behavior funny or charming.

Rather, they thought she was annoying her son and subjecting him to embarrassment.

The video begins with a woman standing at the bar and dancing beside a young man wearing a white hoodie. A shimmering chain with the initials "JT" dangles from his neck. He doesn't appear to be amused by her behavior and looks toward the lens shaking his head from side to side.

"That one time I showed up at the club to surprise my son in college," Jessica writes in a text overlay. The clip then transitions to her sitting on the armrest of what appears to be a couch beside her child. The man, who still has his hood up, is peering down at a smartphone while Mom records herself, grinning toward the lens, a drink in her other hand.

She pans the phone over to him in what appears to be a bid to get the young man's attention. At this angle, the text on his sweatshirt is visible. It reads "good vibes."

After he acknowledges her, he throws up two fingers to the lens and then goes back to tapping away on his phone.

Afterward, she stands up to show off the rest of the club behind her. It appears there are several other college-aged denizens at the bar.

Following this, the video then cuts to her son standing next to other young men his age.

He's dancing with them and looking around the room until he notices that Jessica is recording him. Once he does, he seems to be upset with her decision to video him having a night out with others. Jessica's son gestures toward the camera and while what he says to her isn't picked up on camera, it certainly seems like he's telling her to stop recording him.

In another one of Jessica's videos, she discussed what it feels like being an "empty nester" with her and her partner's kids out of the house. While she jokes about "hearing the streets calling" in beat to the music that accompanies her video, she does say that she's going to miss her kids in the TikTok's caption.

Many of her videos feature pictures of her significant other and their three sons. In another one of her social media posts, however, Jessica commented on the response to the video she posted of her partying with her son.

In a photo montage she uploaded to the popular social media application, she shares a picture of her sitting with her three boys. "I told them how much I love my sons."

Next, the montage switches over to a picture of her children with a supportive text overlay.

"They said aw you're such a good mom."

However, the third image shows a screenshot of a Daily Mail article with a headline that Jessica called an "airball."

The outlet refers to Jessica's behavior toward her child as "obsessive" and that her decision to ambush him at the bar was a source of "fierce debate" on the application.

It appears there were several other users on the app who also criticized her behavior. One person penned, "Boy moms are not beating the allegations."

This appears to be a reference to other social media posts sporting what some deem as bizarre behavior mothers have displayed toward their son.

Distractify previously reported on a viral story that garnered similar scrutiny from viewers. A high school football photo shoot a mother took with her son featured her in a variety of poses with her teen child many likened to the kinds of pictures a person would take with a significant other, not their kid.

Another commenter who replied to Jessica's video also seemed to find her behavior disturbing. "As a mom of 17- and 10-year-old boys, may this level of obsession never find me."

Someone else remarked, "Just because you can doesn't mean you should."

Others replied that they could feel the humiliation seeping out from the video onto their screen. "The secondhand embarrassment I feel for him."

"Please leave him alone," another bluntly stated.