UNC alumnus Stephen Miltz doesn’t how how his website, crazythingsparentstext.com, became so popular.
“Maybe people can relate to it?” he said.
The site, created by Miltz and his brother Wayne in December 2010, receives over 50,000 visitors per day.
On September 1, the brothers released a book based on their website called “Crazy Things Parents Text.”
Stephen said the funniest submitted text messages are in the book and have never appeared on the site.
But the brothers wanted more than a compilation book of text messages.
“We wanted it to actually read like a book…and not just one joke after another,” said Wayne.
So the brothers conceived of the seven stages of textual maturity.
They noticed a pattern over time in the messages parents would text their children, which became the focal point of the book.
“Kids watch their parents crawl and flounder,” said G. Mac Mackie, the brothers’ agent and founder of Old North, A Literacy Agency.
Mackie, also a UNC alumnus, said that parental advancement toward textual maturity retains its humor.
“Parents get the growing pains, which have a lot of laughs,” he said.
Parents progress through the seven stages, learning how to use their phones and then how to give lectures and life lessons via text message, Mackie said.
Mackie said the book shows the interesting social inversion seen in texts between parents and children. The parents become the students of their tech-savvy children.
“It shows the endearing side of child and parent relationships,” he said.
Though the website caters primarily to the younger demographic, Mackie said the book also appeals to parents of all ages.
“The point for us was to try and get some of the people not inclined to visit the humor sites,” he said.
So far, the plan has succeeded, Mackie said.
“All the parents loved it and thought it was very clever…It kind of teaches parents what not to do,” he said.
Wayne said he and his brother wanted to create something tangible that the entire family could enjoy.
He said readers will find hilarity in it.
“I got a lot of laughs out of it myself putting it together,” Wayne said.
Neither brother knows what’s next for the “Crazy Things Parents Text” franchise, though they plan to keep an eye on the book’s success while maintaining the website.
Stephen said it was nice, though, to have a project outside of the Internet.
“Just being able to have something that’s there, that’ll be there forever – I’m glad to have the opportunity to have a book.”
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