This student mom didn’t have a sitter, so her professor stepped in

A Texas A&M prof knew from experience that it takes a village — and offered proof.

When student Ashton Robinson emailed him that she was about to miss his class in the business school at A&M because she didn’t have a sitter for her son, Emmett, Dr. Henry Musoma told her to bring him along.

It was a simple, not unheard of gesture. But it resonated

Musoma is from Zambia, where people retain strong ties with their tribe or clan.

“In the village, you depend on each other to make life happen,” he explained in a video about the incident posted on the HeartThreads Facebook page. “And so, even in a classroom, I believe that ultimately if an instructor, a faculty member, a teacher, an educator is able to establish community, is able to establish that village, magic happens.”

Robinson showed her appreciation in a separate Facebook post, saying, “Being a single mom is so challenging but it’s people like Dr. Henry Musoma that make life just a tiny bit easier! ... Definitely something I'll never forget and can't wait to someday tell Emmett that it's because of people like this that mommy was able to graduate from the best university in the world.”

Musoma even picked up the tyke and carried him around during the lecture last week, which Robinson captured on video and shared in her post Sept. 7. The 7-second clip has had almost 1.8 million views; the post has almost 12,500 shares and has gotten almost 1,800 comments.

This story was originally published September 13, 2017 at 3:14 PM with the headline "This student mom didn’t have a sitter, so her professor stepped in."