Ashley Smith stepped out of the shower and into a nightmare scenario every Zoom user has imagined. Smith, completely unaware that her 7-year-old had come into her room with a laptop, put on a show she'd rather have not. Instead of letting the embarrassment consume her, the mother of three decided to share her chaotic experience in a humorous Facebook video that quickly went viral, amassing over 4 million views.
"I watch all of these videos of people on the internet and I don’t believe it," Ashley Smith admitted in the video. "And then it just happened to me." She added a caption to the video, explaining her morning routine: "[I] woke up, got everyone logged on to school, hammered out some work, and then planned to hop in the shower before running out of the house. I was winning the day! But I should have known it was too good to be true."
"Did I just walk naked into a zoom call? I DID! I am the person that watches the News or scrolls through FB at night and declares that all Zoom videos are staged. There is no way a news anchor's mistress walked into the screen. Well, I was wrong."
— Ashley Smith
Smith recounted how she hopped in the shower, threw her hair up in a towel, and walked across the room to grab her clothes. That's when she heard a small voice say, "Hang on one second," and another voice added, "I think we need to hang up, we are going to get in trouble." Confused, Smith realized the voices were coming from her daughter's computer, which was set up on her bed with the camera facing the middle of the room.
"I just walked naked into a Zoom call!" Smith exclaimed through fits of laughter. She went on to consider her options. "Send apology notes? Insist it wasn’t you? Immediately withdraw your children? Move to Canada? Own it?"
She hoped her story would bring laughter and solidarity to other parents facing similar struggles. "May my humiliation make you giggle tonight," she concluded. "WEAR YOUR CLOTHES!"
In a follow-up comment, Smith mentioned that her daughter's teacher later reminded the class, "Boys and Girls, please don't enter the Zoom meeting before the teachers are here! And please make sure you are positioned against a wall and that your parents are dressed."
This article was originally published earlier this year. It has since been updated.