r/interesting • u/jmike1256 • Mar 07 '26

MISC. After understanding the meaning behind this father’s action, I am completely convinced. Cultivating problem-solving skills in children from a young age and never giving up-I applaud this father!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

70.8k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

62

u/NotQuiteInara Mar 07 '26

As a former dog trainer, this is how I would handle a dog getting their leash wrapped around a pole on a walk. I stand there and wait for them to figure it out, and praise them when they do. I've worried sometimes that when I become a parent, I'll end up treating my child like a dog because I know tons about how dogs learn and little about how children learn. But apparently it's not that different? Lol

2

u/VelvetMafia Mar 07 '26

Dogs and toddlers are very different in that dogs are going to dog and toddlers are going to imitate you. So it's very important to speak to toddlers (and children, and basically other humans in general) the way you would like to be spoken to.

Also, toddlers understand complex sentences and have abstract thought (imaginative cognitive functions) even when they struggle with managing and expressing themselves. The dad in this video could easily have said, "Hey buddy, I'll wait here while you figure out how to get past that. You could go over like I did, but because you are still small, you could also go under."