A dad took his young daughter out for a walk, and ended up capturing a life-changing moment on video.
Nick Gorman, 33 and from St. Louis, captured a video of the very first time his daughter took part in a childhood right of passage: jumping in a puddle.
But what started as a light-hearted video suddenly took a deeper turn when Gorman made a realization: that his daughter was officially a kid, and no longer a baby.
“My daughter is just over a year and a half old—19 months—and this was her first time puddle jumping,” Gorman explained to Newsweek.
“My wife is pregnant and needed a little break that day, and I’d just gotten our daughter this little net. I figured I’d take her to a park for a while to see if we could catch some frogs or something like that,” he said. “That’s when I’d noticed the puddle and figured with her new walking skills, she’d probably love jumping and splashing around in it as all kids do!”
In a video posted to his TikTok account, @nick.gorman8 on January 16, he encouraged his daughter to splash around in the puddle, showing her what to do. And as she got into it, happily splasing her feet in the water, he said suddenly: “You know what this means? You’re officially a kid. You’re no longer a baby.”
Gorman wrote over the video: “Well that realization hurt,” and added in the caption: “Didn’t realize what I’d said until I watched the video later on… woof!”
He told Newsweek that it was only when he showed his wife the video later that he “realized what I’d actually said, which stung in the best way possible.”
And, responding to the massive online reaction to his clip, he added: “The best part is that so many different types of people can relate to it. I’ve seen comments from young adults wanting to be parents, new parents, tenured parents, and teens who hadn’t realized how much their parents care about them.
“It opened a lot of eyes. It was also nice to see that there were no negative comments, which is impressive in today’s world!”
Gorman’s video has been viewed more than 2.5 million times, also racking up more than 340,000 likes and hundreds of comments from moved viewers, as one commenter admmitted: “Dude I’m not even a dad and this was a gut punch.”
Other parents shared their own stories, with one writing: “My daughter used to call Ketchup ‘dip dip.’ One day I asked if she wanted dip dip and she said ‘it’s ketchup mom.’ My heart broke.”
“My 2 [year old] used to hold my hand going down the stairs, but last week he refused and said ‘I do it.’ So I let him, and then cried because [what do you mean] you don’t need me for the stairs anymore?” another said.
And one admitted: “My daughter is 14 months, moments like this aren’t too far away and I don’t think I’m ready for it.”
But for Gorman, the moment was a mixture of sad and happy.
“While it’s sad she’s growing up, and we’re already seeing our time with her pass, it’s exciting at the same time to see her grow and experience new things–which is why I wanted to become a parent in the first place,” he said.
While children all grow up at their own pace, experts generally agree that a baby becomes a toddler around their first birthday, according to Pampers.
Toddlerhood sees the child learn new skills, from walking and running, kicking a ball and climbing, developing self-awareness, speaking in sentences, and learning to play.
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