Social media has become a space where influencers post their content and users criticize it. Whether positive or negative, that’s what social media is all about. This has now been experienced by The Bucket List Family, known on social media for sharing their adventures. In a video posted on Instagram, we can see how Garrett Gee, the father, throws one of his children into the water. This has generated endless comments about whether this is positive parenting or neglect.
The post: 4.5 million views, 81,000 likes, and more than 2,300 comments
The more engagement a post gets, the better the video/post’s ratings (and therefore money) will be. Based on that, the data shows that the video already has nearly 4.5 million views, 81,000 likes, and more than 2,300 comments. In the video, Garrett Gee talks to his son while they sit on a rock. Immediately afterward, the father grabs the little boy by the armpits and throws him off the rock into the water. He then jumps into the water himself, and the video description says:
“This is NOT parental advice. This is NOT something I advise you try. Also, this is NOT something we’ve done with all of our kids. Each kid is quite different so the way we parent, discipline, and teach HOW TO CLIFF JUMP is quite different 🙂 For sure 1st priority is safety. 2nd is learning that YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS. 3rd is HAVE FUN 🙂 Well speaking of the top priority, safety… We took our youngest Cali to a cliff height that we knew he would be safe. Really the biggest danger would be if he hesitated, didn’t jump far out, and fell down the cliff side. So to be extra safe, because he wanted to jump but was not feeling confident.. I threw him.”
For some it was a positive parenting, for others, an act of negligence
The controversy hasn’t been long in coming. For some, it’s an act of positive parenting by the family, teaching them to overcome fears from a young age and leap into the void in pursuit of their dreams. But for others, it’s an act of negligence and, according to some users, the sole purpose of this is to get views.
Based on the family’s history, it doesn’t seem like the latter. The family has been sharing their life on social media for a decade and has been very well received by internet users. They have more than 3 million followers on Instagram and almost 1.5 million subscribers on YouTube. They describe themselves as full-time family travel journalists. In fact, the family has published a book with National Geographic called: Bucket List Family Travel: Share the World with Kids on 50 Adventures of a Lifetime.
National Geographic: the book of their adventures
This is a book in which they describe their family trips to South Africa, the Galapagos, Alaska, and other places around the world. “As a family of five, the Bucket List Family has swum with whales in Tonga, slept in castles in Ireland, lived on a houseboat in Amsterdam, eaten breakfast with giraffes in Kenya, spent Halloween in Disneyland, and visited more than 90 countries around the world. Now, Jessica Gee brings her tips and tricks to you in the ultimate expert’s guide to traveling as a family,”, the book describes.
The family, therefore, is no stranger to the public; they have a long list of fans who constantly follow their content, and perhaps that’s why the video has had more traction than expected. In the comments section of the post, one user asks: “Honest question, no judgement. Did he know he was going to be thrown?,” to which Garrett Gee himself responds: “YES. He had the choice to climb down, jump himself, or have me throw him. He chose to be thrown. But regardless it was still scary for him. Scary for me too because I need to make sure he doesn’t cling onto me and hit the cliffs and also make sure he hits the water feet first. Kinda tricky but I feel like it’s part of the dad job description ;).”
“Be safe out there, you can do hard things, have fun”
The family, for their part, has continued creating content and uploading videos as they had been doing. To close the story, this is what they said at the end of the post, which for many serves as a lesson in itself: “Eventually a baby eagle needs to leave the nest..or be tossed out of the nest 😉 and learn HE CAN FLY! But warning : teaching your kids to be brave starts to backfire when they become older and begin jumping from heights that you don’t even dare!! BE SAFE OUT THERE! YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS! HAVE FUN!”
