When Britney Tankersley put her son to bed one night at 8 PM he informed her the following day was “Twin Day” at his school. The Alabama mom was understandably flustered – she had mere hours to figure out a plan so her son Myles could dress up like his best friend.

To top it off, she hadn’t even met this friend yet, but Myles told her they were real-life twins and looked exactly alike – matching outfits would only seal the deal.

Of course, she didn’t want to let down her kindergartner down, but she didn’t even know the other boy’s size. So she also had to track down this friend’s mom.

“He went on and on about how they looked exactly the same,” Tankersley told TODAY. “‘We both have brown eyes, we both have dark hair,’ and he was just adamant … so I head to Walmart and I’m like, irritated. I’m like, this is too late. I’m too old for this.”

When she posted to Facebook the next day, she said Myles “was adamant that they were identical.”

Tankersley felt rewarded for all her trouble after she received a photo from the boys’ kindergarten teacher of the boys the next day.

Sporting their “Future Leaders” shirts that she described as “the only decent shirts left” in their sizes, she was touched to see Myles’ “twin.”

“My heart melted. Obviously two very different children, but Myles didn’t see that. Wouldn’t the world be such a better place if we could all view it through the eyes of a couple 5yr olds.”

The photo immediately went viral and less than two months later has well over half a million Facebook reactions and over a quarter of a million shares.

“I was basically crying because it was so sweet,” she said. “Obviously, I know that they don’t look alike at all. But he didn’t see that, you know? I expect to get a picture of another white child with light skin and brown hair, whatever, but I didn’t get that at all. And I said ‘That is the sweetest thing in the whole world.'”

The kids were, of course, thrilled by the attention they got after the photo had made its rounds. But Tankersley was somewhat mortified by how widely it was shared – she wanted to draw attention to the sweet moment but wasn’t prepared for the response.

“It’s so crazy,” she told TODAY. “My objective is never to be in the spotlight, but I think the message is more important than how much it exploded.”

Aside from a lesson in social media, Tankersley said she also learned something much bigger about how adults view things differently.

“I was kind of put in my place because I was expecting to see something totally different, and that’s not what it was at all.”

Commenters praised the boys, pointing out that we could all learn a lot from their youthful innocence.

You’ll be happy to know that the boys are now friends outside of school as well. In fact, the two families live just a few minutes away from one another.

Be sure to scroll down below to see Britney Tankersley’s original Facebook post and all the sweet comments it received.

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Source: Britney Tankersley via Facebook, TODAY