It seems everything is on hold in the era of the coronavirus: schools, restaurants, stores. You name it. Bars across the nation are also shutting their doors to promote social distancing and try to keep the number of COVID-19 cases from completely overwhelming our health care system. But just because the clubs aren’t open doesn’t mean American kids have stopped turning 21.
One of those Gen-Zers is Jack Torchia, who returned from college to isolate with his family in New Jersey. When his plans to party with his family and friends fell through, his mother, Carolyn, took it upon herself to make sure he had the full club-hopping experience, even if it had to happen in her husband’s “man cave.”
At midnight on March 22, Jack’s 18-year-old sister, Emily, captured the whole thing before putting it on the popular social media app TikTok. It currently has over 4.5 million views.
“Let’s see some ID, please,” father/“security guard” Anthony Torchia requests before allowing his son to enter “Club Quarantine.”
His mother was situated behind the bar to provide drinks. “It’s our policy that we give you a free green tea shot,” she says in the video before pouring one out for her son, the “bouncer,” and herself.
Emily, who returned home from Penn State due to the coronavirus pandemic, told Glamour that this type of gesture is par for the course with her family. “My mom comes from a very big and passionate family, so we do stuff like this all the time, surprisingly,” she said over Instagram. “It took about a day since my garage is already a ‘man cave.’ My parents just moved stuff around and then added decorations!”
With two kids home from college earlier than expected, the Torchia family has been using this time to reconnect. “My family has always been very close, but this situation definitely made us closer, which I didn’t think was possible,” Emily said.
“My dad is the most excited, which is the funny part,” she adds about her parents’ reactions to their new TikTok fame. “My mom was very touched by the positive comments people wrote about them as parents, as well.”
It looks like these DIY birthday parties are becoming somewhat of a trend on TikTok and Twitter while the nation hunkers down to protect themselves and others from contracting COVID-19. CNN’s Saba Hamedy shared a few more of these makeshift celebrations on her Twitter:
Honestly, all these parents are killing it right now.
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