I panicked when I opened the door to my teenage daughter’s room — and what I saw there completely devastated me.

For the past few weeks,  Théo  had been coming to our house every Sunday. Polite, kind, always with a shy smile. They would go up to Léna’s room and only come out for snack time. Nothing alarming in itself… but the more time passed, the more my imagination ran wild.

What if they did something inappropriate?

I felt ridiculous thinking that, but worry eventually won out. That Sunday, I took a deep breath and decided to open the door.

A scene I will never forget

The lamp cast a soft light. Lena, sitting on the floor, was wearing headphones. Opposite her, Theo was leaning over an open notebook, frowning at an equation. And then, I understood.

She wasn’t “hiding” anything.  She was helping him review his math formulas!

Colored markers, stickers, and textbooks surrounded the studious pair. The plate of cookies I had prepared for them a few hours earlier sat untouched beside it. Too focused to snack, these two teenagers were spending their afternoon as if it were a genuine tutoring session.

When they saw me, they jumped. Lena took off her headphones and asked me in a worried tone,
“Mom, are you alright?”

I stood there, unable to speak. A little ashamed for having imagined the worst… and deeply moved by the scene I had just witnessed.