EXCLUSIVE

Eye of the storm: Bek Piscioneri and her daughter Belle. Photo: Peter Mathew

Bek Piscioneri did not expect to become a global media sensation when she put her daughter's One Direction tickets on eBay.

But a provocative tirade on the auction listing about how the behaviour of her daughter and her ''bitchy little friends'' had cost her a chance to see the global boy band ensured Ms Piscioneri had more than her 15 minutes of fame.

''Anyhow. Your loss [is someone] else's gain who deserves them!'' was the sign-off to the eBay listing.

Within a couple of days she had 900,000 hits on the item and 4000 emails sympathising with her plight.


The story was discussed on Canadian TV, in Puerto Rico, the US and Britain.

Then there were the requests from CNN, Channel Ten, A Current Affair, Today Tonight and radio stations, all keen to learn her identity and tell her story.

She said the highest bid offered for her story was $25,000 from a foreign news program.

Ms Piscioneri has agreed - for no fee - to tell her story to Fairfax Media. What emerges is less a strident mum reading an eBay riot act to her daughter, and more a mother trying to come to grips with parenting a child amid the pressured commercialisation of childhood.

First, a taste of Ms Piscioneri's handiwork on the eBay listing for four tickets to a concert in Sydney:

''You can thank my daughter's self righteous and lippy attitude for their sale. See sweety? And you thought I was bluffing.

''I hope the scowl on your bitchy little friends' faces when you tell them that your dad and I revoked the gift we were giving you all reminds you that your PARENTS are the ones that deserve love and respect more than anyone. And your silly little pack mentality of taking your parents for fools is one sadly mistaken.''

After her comments were picked up in a whirl of social media, Ms Piscioneri now says she made up the character she wrote about, describing it as ''a witty campaign'' to try and recover what she spent on the tickets.

She decided to sell the tickets after she had a change of heart and did not want to expose her 10-year-old daughter to being caught up in an obsession for the band.

Ms Piscioneri, who lives in country NSW but was speaking from Tasmania, said she bought the four $80 tickets without telling her family, intending to take her daughter.

''It was after a bit of deliberation and observing my 10-year-old daughter's behaviour and behaviour to her peers that I decided not to encourage a boy-crazy pre-teen,'' Ms Piscioneri said.

''While she likes her music she's not at the stage where she is kissing posters and wanting doona covers and doing all that. I reflected on that a little bit and decided I didn't want to push on her tween years more than necessary. I'd like her to be growing up at her own rate,'' she said.

It was only when Ms Piscioneri decided to sell the tickets that she mentioned them to her husband, Matt, telling him she would try and get the money back by selling them.

''I thought about it and asked myself: who goes on eBay to buy tickets? I thought: mothers of teens.

''What do they have in common? We all get frustrated with our kids. I created a character. It was a figment of my imagination,'' she said. ''Obviously a lot of people found something in that ad which they could connect to … The amount of emails I've had of support has been astronomical. Of 2500 emails I have opened out of about 4000, I have received only five negative comments.''

After the listing went viral, Ms Piscioneri said she stopped the auction and closed her eBay account.