Savannah West, 29, was planning to drop off her daughter at her grandmother’s house for six weeks so she could go on vacation without her child. She decided to make a joke about it on TikTok, thinking everyone would understand the humor. Instead, many people in the comments began calling her a “bad mother.”
The story became so blown out of proportion that West later had to explain to People what had caused hundreds of thousands of people to question her parenting style. “The funny part is that she’s always asking for her suitcase, and she wants to go to the airport because she knows,” West told the publication. She added, “I thought that that video was funny, so I figured it would get views. But I never thought that it would turn into all of this.”
The visit took a lot of convincing
West explained that her daughter Cassidy, 3, actually loves spending time with her grandparents, and the feeling is mutual. West told the outlet that it had taken considerable convincing from her mother to persuade the Atlanta native to allow her daughter to spend the summer in Arizona.
West said that her daughter is “so cool” and that she genuinely enjoys spending time with her. However, she also saw the situation as an opportunity to make a broader point about motherhood to her fellow parents on TikTok. West said, “All the moms that are saying they don’t want to be away from their children, I would go and look at their pages, or it would take me two seconds to realize you don’t have nothing else going on. It’s just the kids.” She continued, “I think that that is the differentiator between me and the others in the video who disagreed with me.”
West argued that the women she knows who live fun, successful, and joy-filled lives did not abandon those parts of themselves after becoming mothers. She later told People that she is also trying to teach her daughter that women can work, run businesses, and live full lives. West continued, “I think [that’s the] perfect response to people saying, ‘How could you?’ I’m showing my daughter exactly what I think that a little Black girl should see.”
She emphasized the importance of support
The viral TikTok eventually led to a longer discussion by West on Substack, where she wrote about women viewing motherhood in their 20s as a “setback” and emphasized the importance of support systems — particularly the relationship she shares with her own mother.
West wrote, “I don’t want her to feel any resentment for me. I want her to know that she was a very fun addition to my life, and that I enjoyed her and that I did not just sacrifice for her.”
West, who is both a business owner and a published writer, urged other mothers to remember that taking care of themselves does not make them “bad mothers.” She vowed to continue creating content about motherhood, saying she wants to reassure women who wish to become mothers but fear they must choose between their careers and parenthood that it is not a binary choice.
Published: Jun 26, 2026 07:34 am