The worst son in the world

“Do you want me to grab something from the supermarket?”

I’m sitting in front of my computer catching up on some work, when my mom’s message comes in. 

“No need, thanks.”

A minute later, a video call comes in and I think, “Why is my mom video calling me from the supermarket?”

She’s visiting from Brazil, so maybe there was a problem with her credit card or something. 

I answer, but I get a black screen and nothing else. She doesn’t say anything at all so I hang up. 

Sometimes when she calls the kids she clicks something by accident and the image goes away, maybe that’s what’s happening, but it’s still odd she’s not speaking… I hope everything is ok.

A minute later, another video call, and the same thing happens. All I get are some ambient noises. 

As soon as I hang up, she calls again. I don’t pick up and text back, 

“STOP CALLING ME 😂”

She calls again. 

“Do you want to talk to me? I pick up and you don’t speak”

Another call comes in, I answer but there’s still no response. 

Then one more call. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. 

That’s when I realise: she’s probably pocket-dialling me. 

“Lock your phone, please, mom”

Another video call comes in. 

I’d normally think this is pretty funny, but every time she calls me a huge window opens up on my computer. It’s annoying as hell — and impossible to get any work done.

That’s when I think, “I guess I’ll have to block my mom.”

It makes complete sense: the calls will stop coming in, I’ll do what I’ve got to do, and later today I’ll unblock her. 

I guess she’ll be back home in another hour or two max, we’ll laugh about it and that will be that. 

But what if she actually needs me before that? She knows her way around Barcelona, but still: if she calls and I don’t answer because I blocked her… I won’t hear the end of it. 

She’ll tell Patricia. She’ll tell my brother. She’ll tell my aunts (who will tell the whole family). 

I’m already the son who left the country for a year and never moved back. 

The son who doesn’t call every week. 

The son who can be a real pain in the ass. 

And it doesn’t matter that I have a good reason to do it. It doesn’t matter I actually have work I need to get done — I’ll forever be the son who blocked his mom. 

While I’m going through this internal debate, I notice that no calls have come in for the past few minutes. 

Then an hour goes by, and I start feeling a little worried. 

Did she figure out what she was doing? If so, why didn’t she message me back? It seems unlikely she’d have gone this long without grabbing her phone…

Before I can panic, I hear the front door open and she’s back. Her phone was unlocked in her pocket, and we do laugh about it. 

And I’m happy I didn’t block her after all. 

Because sometimes, why you did something matters a whole lot less than what it looks like. 

And I’ve got too many strikes against me as a son as it is 😅

A huge thanks

A few weeks ago, I told I had been nominated for an “Oscar” and… I actually won. TWICE. 

In case you have no idea what I’m talking about: 

👉 The Anthem Awards were created by The Webby's (the Oscars of the Internet) to explicitly celebrate social impact work.

👉 Other winners from this year’s edition: ABC News, Bloomberg, and PepsiCo, Andrew Garfield and Sesame Workshop, Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Headspace, World Central Kitchen, and Paris Hilton. 

We took home TWO awards at the 2025 Anthem Awards: The Silver Award 🥈 for Humanitarian Action and the Community Voice 🏆 award.

This means we won the popular vote in our category (so a HUGE THANKS to everyone who voted!! 🙏)

These awards are in recognition of the work Brian Miller and I did to support Carey Theil and Christine Dorchak's talk at TEDxAlexanderPark, "How to be an activist who creates real change."

Our work helped them get that message to over 1 million people – and counting! 

I'll leave you with Brian’s acceptance speech, which The Anthem Awards requires be less than 20 words:

Ideas don't speak for themselves, people do. So speak up for your ideas.

🤘

-Francisco 

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