Working mom’s tearful confession on family living paycheck to paycheck goes viral: ‘I don’t know what to do’

A Pennsylvania mom’s tearful TikTok video confessing her family’s struggle to get by left her stunned after reeling in 1.5 million views in the days since, and many across social media are saying the viral post relays the struggle many Americans feel today. 

“I feel like my husband and I are doing everything right. We both have good jobs. I’m a registered nurse who works full-time. He works full time,” Mackenzie Moan, a mom of two, tearfully said in the video.

“We just got paid this past Friday, right? We paid the mortgage, bought some groceries, put some gas in the car. Guys, it is Tuesday, and we have like $200 or $300 to last us until next Friday.”

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In the video captioned, “normal people are struggling. something has to change,” Moan detailed how her husband, Steve, works overtime every week while she works full-time and is also a full-time student. She also said they live in a small three-bedroom, one-bathroom ranch, and they don’t live beyond their means. 

“I don’t know what to do,” she cried. “I’m so stressed out.”

The internet quickly chimed in, assuring her she wasn’t alone.

“I promise it’s not just you. It’s all of America,” one commenter wrote.

Another lamented that wages are “not keeping up with inflation,” while a third said, “I make 6 figures and am STILL paycheck to paycheck! How in the hell?? I don’t live beyond my means either. It is so depressing!”

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Moan, appearing on “FOX & Friends Weekend” Sunday, told co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy she never intended for the video to go viral, and, while some commenters have been negative, most of the feedback she has received has been positive.

“I didn’t really have any intentions when I posted the video. I had maybe five videos that I had posted to TikTok prior to that, and I just needed to vent in the moment,” she said.

“I needed to vent to my phone and just get the words out of my brain with all the stress that I was feeling. I had maybe 30 followers before I posted that video, and I didn’t ever intend for it to spread as much as it did,” she added.

According to Duffy, Moan’s husband works as a security guard and a personal trainer, and both clean an office building once a week. Combined with Moan’s role as a registered nurse, it’s a total of four jobs.

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“I’m just glad that my voice was unintentionally empowering people to speak out and say, ‘Me too” and share that. We’re all in the same situation with the economy and the price of groceries and gas and just the struggle of middle-class America, where we’re working our butts off, and we feel like we have nothing to show for it,” she said.