Posting a photo of his tearful toddler, Charlie — face contorted into utter despair as if the world was ending — Greg Pembroke wrote the status update: “Reason why my son is crying: I broke his cheese in half.”
The picture caused so much hilarity among his Facebook friends that the 33-year-old started a Tumblr page, chronicling other examples of Charlie’s many meltdowns.
“I wouldn’t let him drown in this pond,” read the caption to an
iPhone snap of the 22-month-old bawling his eyes out on a country walk. “He wanted butter on his rice. I put butter on his rice,” said another entry.
“His reactions were so completely over the top, it was too funny,” recalls Pembroke.
Within five days of the original cheese posting early last month, the dad-of-two’s “Reasons My Son Is Crying” blog was No. 1 on Reddit and netted 200,000 notes on Tumblr. A possible book deal is in the works.
“It’s something which parents identified with – kids throwing tantrums for no logical reason,” says Pembroke, a part-time radio host from Rochester, NY. “Everybody’s been there.”
A few online trolls have accused him of exploiting his little boy, but, says Pembroke, “99.9 percent of all e-mails and Facebook comments have been supportive.
“I actually see it as a celebration of this time in his life,” he adds. “Like all toddlers, he can laugh as hard as he can cry.”