Baby Goes Viral After Mom Drops Fork (Exclusive)

Gabriella Brockway and her husband, Noah, were sitting at the kitchen table in their Pennsylvania home on a rare night when they cooked dinner themselves.

Usually, Gabriella’s mother-in-law — who she describes as a great cook — brings meals over to help out since they just welcomed their baby five months ago. But this time, Gabriella decided to make steak, rice and veggies.

When Gabriella finished cooking, the family of three settled at the dining table to eat. As she went to cut into her steak, she noticed it was a little more well done than she would have liked — a result of not being the best chef. While trying to cut it, she accidentally dropped her fork.

She thought nothing of it when it hit the plate, since dropping utensils was nothing new for her clumsy fingers. That is, until she looked over at her baby and saw her reaction.

“I was heartbroken,” the new mom, 40, tells PEOPLE exclusively, recalling how Palmer burst into tears. “I thought nothing of it, you think, hey, I dropped my fork, and to us it means nothing but her little self, she doesn’t understand what’s happening yet.”

“My first reaction when her lip was quivering was she was just frightened,” Gabriella adds. “But then it turned into a scream we hear sometimes — usually when she’s sick of being in the car! [She’s] NOT A FAN OF CAR RIDES hahaha!”

At the time, Palmer was in a high chair, so getting her out quickly wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Instead, the parents calmed her down by talking directly to her and letting her know the scary noise was just a fork and that nothing bad was happening.

Gabriella says that while her first reaction to moments like this is never to make a video, seeing how cute her daughter looked, she decided to pull out her phone and record Palmer’s reaction.

“She’s great at soothing herself with our voices and calming down,” the mom says. “When we took her out, she got cuddles and kisses.”

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Later, she posted it on TikTok, thinking it was a sad but cute video others might relate to. But then the video went viral, amassing over 8.2 million views and nearly 10,000 comments.

“When it went viral, I felt terrible thinking of all the positive videos I post that get no likes and the sad one of my baby had to be the video that went big,” Gabriella admits.

“Every day with a baby has viral-worthy moments,” she says, adding how she’s dedicated her TikTok account to motherhood. “We try to be as present as possible with no phones in her face, but sometimes I also feel like I have to capture this moment so I can watch it down the road! Stay tuned for maybe more funny viral Palmer moments!”

Gabriella says that what she has learned from this moment is that something small to us adults can feel huge to a baby. It’s their first time for everything, and they’re learning how to cope with feelings that can feel overwhelming.

She adds that when Palmer sees this video when she’s older, she hopes her daughter knows her mom and dad were right beside her and that she was always safe.

“It was a scary noise, and she did an amazing job at figuring it all out and trusting us to protect her!” she says.

“Every day we ask ourselves, ‘Am I doing this right?’ — which I’m sure all first-time parents can relate to, and we all do things differently,” Gabriella adds. “The mom community on TikTok is amazing and has been so supportive.”