A 5-year-old boy has broken hearts across the internet after what he said to his mom at bedtime.

Mom Kirsten Petroska (@mamaintheforest) shared what happened in a post on Threads when her son, Henry, was falling asleep.

As he wept beside her, Kirsten asked him what was wrong. What he said next startled her: "I’m really worried about growing up and going to college . I don’t want to have to be away from you and Daddy."

Kirsten told Newsweek that she felt relieved and amused, but only for a second. "I could remember having that same kind of anxiety as a child and how good it felt to be taken seriously and how awful it felt to be dismissed," the 37-year-old said. "I knew I had to take his worries seriously."

View on Threads

Kirsten, who lives with her husband Mike Hussey, 41, and

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