- Garrett Gee, known as The Bucket List Family creator on social media, shared a video of himself throwing his 7-year-old son off a cliff in Lake Powell
- The father of five recognized that “most people won’t love” his parenting style on cliff jumping, but went on to explain his thought process with a lengthy caption alongside the clip
- Gee made clear that he prioritized “safety” and stressed the importance of teaching his kids that they “can do hard things”
Everyone has their own parenting style.
As for Garrett Gee, the popular influencer best known as “The Bucket List Family” founder, his parenting style may take some by surprise as illustrated in a recent video shared on Instagram that features him throwing his 7-year-old son off a cliff in an attempt to help him conquer his fears.
“Most people won’t love how we teach our kids how to cliff jump,” Gee writes in text over the video, which has racked up over 3.5M views since it was posted on Sunday, July 13.
The clip shows Garrett with his son, Calihan, standing on a massive rock formation in Lake Powell and seemingly pep talking him about the jump into the water down below. Ultimately, he picks his little one up and tosses him off the cliff as he makes the plunge.
After he surfaced, Calihan — who screamed on the way down, but popped up with a smile on his face — was joined by his dad, who jumped in beside him and greeted him with a thumbs up and a smile.
The young boy was also met with cheers from onlookers supporting him from afar.
The father of three paired the video with a lengthy caption that explains his decision to throw his son off the cliff, where he clarified that his post is “NOT parental advice” nor “something [he advises] you try.” He also made clear that this tactic isn’t one they’ve done with their other two 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 :),” Garrett began in the caption.
“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,” he continued.
To be “extra safe,” Garrett said he “threw him” because “he wanted to jump but was not feeling confident,” adding, “Eventually a baby eagle needs to leave the nest… or be tossed out of the nest 😉 and learn HE CAN FLY!”
He concluded, “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!”
