Texas mom pens viral absence letter to daughter's teacher for Taylor Swift concert

Austin mom pens viral Taylor Swift-themed letter to daughter's teacher

An Austin mom is going viral on Twitter for a letter she wrote to her daughter's first-grade teacher about her absence from school due to an upcoming Taylor Swift concert.

AUSTIN, Texas - An Austin woman's letter to her daughter's teacher asking for her to be excused from school for a Taylor Swift concert is going viral.

Karen Vladeck wrote the skillfully worded letter, which incorporates more than a few song titles from the "Midnights" singer/songwriter, to her daughter Maddie's teacher.

She later posted it to Twitter, saying "Here's hoping my daughter’s 1st grade teacher is a Swiftie," where it has been retweeted over 220 times and viewed about 351.1 thousand times.

The award-winning artist is currently on her multi-city cross-country "The Eras Tour", which is scheduled to stop in Houston for three nights at NRG Stadium next weekend.

Vladeck sits down with FOX 7 Austin's John Krinjak to talk about how the letter came about.

JOHN KRINJAK: So you wrote to your daughter's first grade teacher, Ms. Parks, I understand, so she can be excused from class for the Taylor Swift concert in Houston.
You said, "I hope missing school doesn't ruin her otherwise stellar Reputation. But she begged me to go, and maybe I Should Have Said No. But I didn't want to be Mean. So It Goes..." And that's just a few of them. How did you come up with this?

KAREN VLADECK: So I think somewhere in my subconscious it dated back to when my husband, who is a lifelong New Yorker before we moved to Texas and is a diehard Mets fan, he used to go to opening day at the Mets every year, and his dad used to write him a note that said, Steven can't go to school today. He has to see the doctor. And in the late eighties, early nineties, there was a very famous pitcher on the Mets named the Doctor. And so this was sort of like a family folklore story that we had in our own family. And I thought, okay, well, this is matters for a sort of fun reason to miss school, so why don't I carry on our tradition and write a fun note? And I just started writing and it just kept going.

JOHN KRINJAK: A family "folklore" story. I see what you did there. The letter continues. "I hope this doesn't leave any Bad Blood between you and Maddie and that things for the rest of the year are not Treacherous. I know I Did Something Bad, and I promise this will be The Last Time she has an unexcused absence before the Cruel Summer starts." So, people love this. More than 350,000 people have viewed the letter on Twitter. Are you blown away by that? What kind of response have you gotten?

KAREN VLADECK: Yeah, it's really funny. I think it's one of those things that, you know, this is the first time that one of my, you know, I've been on Twitter for a long time. And I think that there's always been interactions on Twitter and it's always I always scratch my head a little bit about what goes viral and what doesn't. But when the Today show called, I said, Oh, wow, this really, really got picked up. Right? And I think honestly, right now, there has been so much in the news whether it's Nashville or the things that are going on locally in Texas and in Austin. People just really sort of gripped on to what is essentially a very sweet, innocent story. You know, I haven't really gotten any negative feedback from it other than a couple people who want to say, "Oh, I can't believe you're going to let your daughter miss school for a Taylor Swift concert." To which my response is she's seven years old and education happens in and out of the classroom.

JOHN KRINJAK: That there's always going to be haters. So I think what we're wondering is how did Ms. Parks react? Was she. Yes. Did she Shake It Off? Did she have trouble? What did she say?

KAREN VLADECK: She shook it off. She wrote back. So my concern and this is what I think is funny if you look within the tweet thread. So I actually didn't tell my husband that I was going to send this email. I just copied him on it. And he immediately wrote back, "Oh my God, Karen", As in, you know, what have you done? And within I mean, one minute Ms. Parks wrote back in all caps, This made my entire day. So thankfully, she's also a Swiftie, and she immediately got it. Yeah.

JOHN KRINJAK: Love it. Well, Karen, thank you for brightening our days with this. I think you're right. I think this is the kind of thing we need right now. Thanks for joining us. And I hope you guys have so much fun at the concert. We appreciate it.

KAREN VLADECK: Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.