Teacher's Kind Gesture to Nervous New Kindergarten Parents Brings Tears to Mom's Eyes (Exclusive)

Tavia Wade is a mom to 5-year-old twin girls and a 17-month old

Tavia Wade anxiously anticipated the day she would drop off her 5-year-old twins for their first day of kindergarten. Although the Utah resident had previously sent her children to preschool, the transition to elementary school felt significant.

When the first day arrived, Wade and her husband, who are also parents to a 17-month-old, walked their twins to their neighborhood school, where they left them in their separate classrooms. As Wade, teary-eyed, prepared to say goodbye to one of her daughters, June, she looked up to find the teacher, Mrs. Durrant, standing before her.

"She looked up at me with a big smile and said, 'This is for you,' " the mom, 30, tells PEOPLE. "She handed me a poem stapled to a small pack of Kleenex tissues. It was so thoughtful. I tried my best to hold it together while my daughter was meeting her teacher and settling into her class."

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After parting ways with their daughters, Wade began reading the poem aloud to her husband. "I give you a little wink and smile as you entered my room today, for I know how hard it is to leave and know your child must stay," it began. (Read the poem in full below.)

Wade had barely gotten past the first line before her lips started quivering and she began to cry. "I’m feeling like, 'Oh my gosh, the whole neighborhood's watching,' and then I look over and my husband has crocodile tears streaming down his cheeks," she recalls.

The parents finished reading the poem silently and walked home overwhelmed by emotion. Throughout the rest of the day, Wade found herself reading the poem to herself repeatedly, estimating she must have read it more than 30 times that day alone.

Since then, she's continued to read the poem daily, sometimes more. She plans to add it to the keepsake boxes she's making her daughters to look back on.

"The poem put into words everything you're feeling as a parent in that moment and gave me reassurance that my babies were in good hands," Wade says.

Not long after receiving the poem, Wade posted a video about it on TikTok to thank the teacher. Coming from a family of educators, she knows how important it is to recognize the hard work of teachers and highlight the wonderful ones in her children’s lives.

To her surprise, the video went viral, garnering 260,000 views and more than 600 comments.

"I loved reading all the comments from teachers," Wade says. "Many commented saying things like, 'We really do love them as our own.' I’ve been a teacher for a while, and I can absolutely attest that this poem is true. We truly love those kids."

She continues, "It’s heartwarming to feel this sense of camaraderie — motherhood and teaching are amazing, exhausting, emotional and rewarding, and it’s comforting to know you're not alone in these experiences."

While the video has touched people across social media, it also made its way to a more familiar face. One day, while picking her daughters up from school, Mrs. Durrant came up to Wade and shared how someone had come across her TikTok and sent it to her.

"That was so nice of you to share," the teacher told her.

"Teachers deserve all the praise and a lot of times they don't get very much praise," Wade recalls responding. "So I'm happy that you're getting a little bit of that."

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Read the original article on People.