A 2019 creepypasta by Haley Hendershot (also known as Juniper June HJH).
Mrs June is an elementary school teacher in Utah, who is overseeing her students reading out their poetry assignments. One of her shyest students, Paisley Jackson, has written a poem about her family. And she's going to tell them all about her father, her ten siblings and her two mommies...
It can be read here
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Contains examples of the following tropes:
- Abusive Parents: Tom Jackson is abusive to his children by Betty, beating some of them with a rod (and that's just what Paisley mentions).
- Age-Gap Romance: Implied between Tom and Claire, with Paisley saying she's much younger than his first wife Betty. Claire was in high school when she "joined" the family, though it definitely isn't a consensual relationship.
- Apathetic Teacher: Mrs June is a downplayed example. She does try to encourage and help her students, but after ten years she's clearly disillusioned by the seemingly endless cycle of poverty and abuse she encounters, and the lack of assistance from CPS. She privately thinks most of the Jackson kids are "dumber than a box of rocks" and a lost cause, but she also goes above and beyond to support Paisley - who she thinks is genuinely bright - makes mental notes to drop off some of her baby clothes at the Jacksons when she learns Betty is pregnant again and wishes she could do more to help.
- Awful Wedded Life: Both Tom's marriages sound deeply unhappy. Tom blatantly prefers Claire to Betty and neglects her even while she's pregnant. Despite Tom's affection for Claire, she makes it clear she doesn't feel the same and wants to leave with her children. And then it's revealed Claire isn't actually Tom's wife at all.
- Babies Make Everything Better: Betty is hoping that her new pregnancy will make things better after something happened that made Tom very sad.
- Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Jacksons. Tom is a controlling jerk with two wives, who neglects his first wife in favor of his second, and even then he blamed her for their baby dying of SIDS. He also beats some of his children. Neither of his wives are happy and Claire in particular wants to get away. All of the children are neglected because their parents can't afford to properly provide for them. And that's before it's revealed Claire is not part of the family willingly.
- Child by Rape: Paisley and Tommy are revealed to be this, as their father kidnapped their mother.
- Children Are Innocent: Paisley. Good God, poor Paisley. She ends up revealing some incredibly dark stuff to her teacher and classmates in a poem about her family, oblivious to how abnormal this all is. Many of her classmates are oblivious as well, with only Mrs June (and the reader) being fully aware of what's going on.
- Dead Guy Junior: Tom wants to name Betty's unborn baby Daisy, which is revealed to be Claire's surname. Betty isn't happy about this.
- Department of Child Disservices: Mrs June has this opinion of the local CPS, saying they tend to pick and choose which cases to investigate, despite her encountering dozens of students suffering from abuse or neglect, and/or living in poverty.
- First-Person Perspective: The story is written from the perspective of Mrs June as she listens to Paisely reading out her poem.
- Foreshadowing:
- There's quite a bit of foreshadowing towards The Reveal; Paisley says in her poem that her mommy wears a silver bracelet because she's famous, that Tom used to go to all her school shows, they were "joined in the night" and Claire wants to leave and show Paisley the world, among other things. And then there's Mrs June having the feeling there's something familiar about Paisley, though she initially can't put her finger on it.
- The title itself provides a lot of foreshadowing though it does turn out that sleeping isn't quite what Mommy is doing in the basement.
- Good Stepmother: Betty seems to at least care for Paisley and her older full brother Tommy, and made a cake for Paisley's last birthday.
- Ironic Nursery Tune: Paisley has written a rhyming poem titled "My Family" and reads it aloud in class. The content of the poem quickly goes from uncomfortable, to disturbing, to downright horrifying, especially concerning the last few lines.
- Love Makes You Evil: Tom claims he loves Claire more than anyone else, but his twisted love for her led him to abduct her, keep her locked in his basement for over a decade and impregnate her against her will. And it didn't stop him from killing her eventually, though he expresses regret over this.
- Massive Numbered Siblings: Paisley is the youngest of eleven children. She had another sibling who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome and her stepmother is expecting another baby.
- Maternal Death? Blame the Child!: Inverted. Paisley's father blamed her mother after her third baby died of SIDS.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Tom did something he deeply regrets and asks God why it happened. It's revealed he murdered Claire and has apparently buried her body under cement in his basement.
- Noodle Incident: It's not made entirely clear why Tom murdered Claire after all this time, though it's hinted it may have been because she tried to escape.
- Parental Favoritism: Tom clearly favors his two children by Claire over his other nine children by Betty; he doesn't beat Tommy and Paisley and says they're gifts from God.
- Polyamory: Paisley says she has two mothers: Betty, who she calls "Mom", and Claire, who she calls "Mommy" (the latter is her biological mother). Both women are married to and have children by Tom (he was married to Betty first, then married Claire) and they all live together. Mrs June initially doesn't think much of it and assumes that the Jacksons are polygamist Mormons, pointing out that it isn't unheard of in Utah despite the illegality and what the LDS church says. However, it turns out Mrs June's assumption about the family is inaccurate, with the truth being much, much worse.
- "Ray of Hope" Ending: In spite of the grim nature of the story, the fact that Paisley has unknowingly revealed to Mrs June her family's Dark Secret leaves us with the assumption Mrs June will contact the authorities, meaning Tom will be brought to justice and the children will be rescued. Although it may be too late for poor Claire, at least her family will finally know what happened and her children will have a chance of a better life.
- The Reveal: Paisley's mother is Claire Daisy, a local high school student who used to act in school plays and went missing twelve years ago on the way home from a rehearsal. Tom stalked and abducted her, and has been keeping her in his basement all these years.
- Stalker with a Crush: It's revealed Tom was this to Claire, watching her in all her plays before following her one night and kidnapping her.
- Strong Family Resemblance: Paisley looks a lot like her mother Claire which Mrs June realizes is why she finds Paisley so familiar after seeing a picture of Claire; she recognizes her as a teenager who went missing twelve years ago and was on the news a lot.
- Tempting Fate: After Paisley has seemingly finished her poem, she says she brought a photograph of her mother which includes the last part for extra credit, and begs to be allowed to present it. Mrs June agrees, "thinking there couldn’t possibly be any details worse than what she already presented." Hoo boy, is she mistaken.
- Unwanted Spouse: According to Paisley's poem, Tom doesn't truly love Betty, even saying he only stays with her as a cover for his relationship with Claire.
- Wham Line: The final lines of Paisley's poem:"There is one thing I don't understand, and maybe you’ll have the answer at hand. If Dad’s love for Mommy will never sway, why did he treat her that way? Mom lays her head on a nice soft bed. But Mommy sleeps in the basement under a big slab of cement."
