A mum has left other parents "heartbroken" after her post asking for help to edit her stepson out of a family photo went viral.
Screenshots shared to Twitter show a picture of a family of five taken during a professional photoshoot, with them all wearing matching white tops and blue jeans.
In a text message exchange, the mum asks for permission from the photographer for the photo to be edited to have her stepson removed as she wants one "just with my boys".
She then shares the picture on a Photoshop Facebook group, saying she can offer $10 to anyone who can "remove the centre kid" from the image.
And it appears her request was successful, with a final screenshot showing her new profile picture with the boy removed, as her partner and two other children are moved across to fill the space.
It was shared on Twitter with the caption 'The lump in my throat after seeing this will never go away :( ', as it racked up thousands of likes and comments.
Although the reasons for wanting to remove the child were unclear, with many pointing out it may have been at the request of his biological mother, many people said they were left "in tears" over the situation.
One said: "This breaks my heart. As a kid I didn't grow up with my siblings and went on trips with my cousin's family, being asked to step out of the frame while the 'family' takes pics hurts like hell."
Others shared how a similar experience had affected them as a child, with another replying to say: "I’m 25 and I vividly remember being 11 when my dad and his wife made me dress up and go take xmas pics with my half siblings and his wife in front of me said 'can we do a few without Maya so I can give them to my family'. I cried so much about it later."
