Parenting

This Video Of A Dad Conquering His Fear Of Heights For His Daughter Is Everything

by Meredith Bland
Image via YouTube

Dad crawls to edge of cliff with daughter’s encouragement

We all know that one of the most important things we do as parents is act as role models for our kids. We do that by treating others with kindness and respect, and by eating spaghetti with forks instead of our hands (being a role model covers a lot of stuff.) For one father on vacation with his daughter in Ireland, it meant facing his extreme fear of heights at the cliffs of Dún Aonghasa in Galway, Ireland.

The video, titled, “Dad faces some demons,” was posted on Saturday and already has over one million views. When you see it, you’ll understand why:

This brave, brave man, whose fear of heights is totally reasonable, is recorded crawling on his stomach to the edge of the 300-foot cliff. We hear his daughter, who is doing the recording, cheering him on while they both laugh at what is a perfectly understandable choice to not stand on his feet within fifty feet of that cliff. (Sorry, some of us are so afraid of heights that just watching this video makes our hands sweat.)

Image via YouTube

“Eighty-seven meters above the Atlantic Ocean,” she narrates, while they both crack up, “Inishmore Island. He made it across on the ferry without motion sickness, and now for his final test….”

We love these two. And the next part, where he’s afraid and she encourages him, is fantastic: “I can’t look,” he says. “Yes, you can. You got this.” “I’m afraid,” he says as he slowly army crawls to the edge. “It’s okay,” she says. “If you throw up, it can go right over the side.”

Image via YouTube

Practical and optimistic. We dig it.

Finally, he curls his fingers over the edge, lifts his head up, moans “Oh my gosh,” and puts his head back down. “You have to hold it for five seconds,” she laughs, “of uninterrupted eye contact with the Atlantic Ocean. Get that chin up there.”

Image via YouTube

And he does it!

For this dad to do this for his daughter (because we’re pretty confident that if it weren’t for her he’d still be on the ferry) and to do it with such a great sense of humor makes us smile. You’re never too old to challenge yourself to do something new and “face some demons,” and your kids are never too old to be touched by it. Bravo, you two!

(h/t KSL.com)