When I was a kid, I used to be really into this one youtuber when I was younger. For the sake of their privacy, I’ll refer to them as Max.
Max was pretty big around when I was in middle school and I was one of his most loyal fans, leaving comments on practically every video and making fanart.
Around halfway through middle school, Max decided to do a sweepstakes where the lucky winner would get to meet him in person and eat lunch with him. Now, this was the chance of a lifetime so of course I entered. And as fate would have it, I won!!
I was exuberant! My parents weren’t very pleased that I entered without their permission, but held their tongue as they saw how happy I was.
Max and my parents emailed each other about a good time and date and soon the day was set. He, very kindly, paid for air fare to fly us down. I was barely able to contain my delight as my family packed our bags and flew down to meet him!
We settled into our hotel room for the night, as the next day would be our big lunch date with Max. Mom pulled me off to the side and warned me to be careful about what I tell him, not to give him any personal information, etc. I had heard this many times before, so I admit I wasn’t paying much attention.
How could I? I was about to have lunch with my Idol!!
Finally, the day arrived. We awoke and got dressed, me wearing one of his merch shirts (like a total nerd). We clamored into the car and drove down to the restaurant that Max was going to meet us at.
Lo and behold, he was there!
The lunch went well enough. I got to have my shirt autographed, to my delight. Somehow, my mom didn’t seem so happy that I was enjoying myself.
In fact, she seemed to hate Max more and more as the night went on. I asked my dad why, and he just chalked it down to motherly intuition.
As we left the restaurant, mom again pulled me to the side. She told me that she didn’t quite like max and that he seemed like a bad influence. Dad must have overheard so he took my side, saying that max was just fine for a kid my age to be watching.
This must have set a switch off in my mother. She grabbed me by the hair and yanked me towards her, screaming at my father how Max was “trying to take her baby from her” and how “she wasn’t going to let it happen”.
I was terrified. This wasn’t the mother I grew up with. I wriggled from her grasp and began to make a break for the car, hoping to get inside and lock her out. However, my mother was quick, and she grabbed me once again.
Her screaming got the attention of a bunch of people, including Max, who was just then leaving. He came over and tried to talk sense into my mom, saying how he didn’t want me like that. She didn’t care, continuing her screaming rant about how he was “a creep who preyed on his innocent viewers’.
Finally, she had enough. She reached into her purse and pulled out a small handgun. Surprisingly, she pointed it at me, screaming that she was going to make sure that nobody would ever take me again. I was crying, dad was trying to reason with her and max was terrified.
Finally, someone had the sense to call the police. They arrived relatively quickly and detained my mother. She managed to get off on an insanity plea, claiming temporary insanity caused by jet lag.
Jet Lag.
I never really spoke to her much after she did her stint at the local Psych Ward. I still enjoyed Max’s content even after this, but he kind of fell off of Youtube a few years after this incident.