Mom wears questionable shirt while volunteering in Vietnam: 'She has no idea what it means'
A Vietnamese mother who traveled to her motherland to volunteer wore a shirt with an unfortunate message, her daughter recently revealed on Facebook.
On Jan. 18, Emily Le, of Vancouver, British Columbia, shared photos of her 49-year-old mother on the Facebook group page "Subtle Asian Traits." Images show the woman smiling and posing with a number of children and locals. The only issue, however, is the message on the mother's T-shirt — in bold lettering, the words read, "NOT MY PROBLEM."
"My mom went up to the mountains in Vietnam to help the less fortunate kids while wearing this shirt," Le posted. "She has no idea what it means (love you mom)."
Le's post immediately went viral — as of Tuesday afternoon, it has received over 30,000 reactions and nearly 3,000 comments.
"A Melania trump situation but cuter lol," one person quipped, in a possible reference to the first lady's 2018 gaffe, in which she visited a migrant children's shelter in Texas and wore a trench coat with a message that read, "I REALLY DON'T CARE, DO U?"
"What she did was noble but everyone commenting on what's written on her shirt!" another wrote. "Wonderful."
In a follow-up interview with NextShark, Le's sister Jeannine Ho confirmed the account, explaining that she and their mother traveled to Vietnam to help less fortunate children for the Lunar New Year.
"We drove up the mountains in a truck, approximately 30 minutes away from Ninh Hoa," Ho explained. "My mom, aunts and I handed out rice, fish sauce, spices, dried fish, shoes, chips and goodies for the children, and enough supplies to last them throughout the following months."
Ho further added that she wanted to help, in part, due to her mother's perseverance. Ho's mother reportedly raised three daughters — aged 18, 21 and 25 years old — all by herself.
"There were times where we had to go to the food bank for dinner," Ho recalled. "I was grateful for those who helped us when we were in need. Now that we are older, my mom and I decided to help out the people who need the support of others, just like how we once were."
Ho also backed her sister's claim that their mother did not intentionally wear the shirt during their trip.
"I have no idea where she got that shirt from, maybe it was one of my old shirts that she threw on," Ho told NextShark. "But her English isn’t fluent so she has no idea what her shirt actually means. In fact, she couldn’t even understand why I was laughing so hard while taking these pictures. Luckily, the children did not understand the shirt either."
