Toddler encounters dinosaur and responds accordingly

By: Will Goodman
Topics: Winning!

(CBS News) Kids and dinosaurs go together like peanut butter and jelly. Or chocolate and peanut butter. Geez, just about everything tastes good with peanut butter, right? But getting back on topic, you really need to check out this video of a 2-year-old boy encountering a dinosaur in the woods. His reaction goes from cute to totally priceless at about 33 seconds into the clip.

Run! I was rolling on the floor when that happened. The adorable and hilarious video was posted by YouTube user tfoust1012 who writes:

Zack loves dinosaurs but until now he has never seen one bigger than himself. This is his reaction. Zack is 2 1/2 years old.

Far too cute. We would like to take a moment to thank Zack's parents for sharing such a fun moment and definitely want to give Zack a big triple-rainbow salute for identifying a threat and responding accordingly. We'll all see who's laughing when the dinosaurs finally do attack...

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by Aboyosean May 10, 2012 2:39 AM EDT: First off, I do find this video cute and funny. Second, I do not see any valid argument that could be made that the parents are bad.

The boy loved dinosaurs so his parents decided to take him to a park where he could see dinosaurs. They did not do this with the intent to scare him, but rather for him to enjoy. The comment to "run zack" was simple teasing, the same as playing pica boo with a child of a similar age. There is no sense of urgency in the father's voice that would indicate a real threat to the child. My interpretation of when the mom asked "are you scared" is that she realized that the child was not just surprised but scared. She was not being flippant, rather she realized that the child was not reacting in the way she expected and was genuinely frightened. The parents brought their child to a special park to experience something he enjoyed, dinosaurs. There is nothing in the video that indicates they intentionally set out to scare him or even expected him to be scared. Expanding on the "Zack loves dinosaurs" comment, Zack had previous experience with dinosaurs and had expressed interest in them. People who take their young children to zoos to see scary animals they read about are not guilty of child abuse are they?

I do not believe that any of the arguments that the parents should not have exposed their child to real terror are valid either. No matter what a child experiences they will always be terrified of something. There is no way to completely protect a child from experiencing fear. The most you can do is, as some have said, hold the child by the hand to give them a reassuring anchor while they face the fear. I am certain that if the video had continued we would have seen the parents walk back with the child and explain that the dinosaur was fake. There was no reasonable precaution they could have taken to keep him from being scared by an experience that, based on the child interest, should have been enjoyable to the child. Unless there is evidence showing that the parents did not talk with the child about this event, I have not seen any valid, evidence backed argument based on "letting" the child experience terror that remotely implicates the parents as being bad.

As for scaring the child for life, I am not an expert on child psychology, and based on most of the comments I do not believe most, if any, of the other people commenting here are either. I can only relate that I had several similar experiences when I was a child but I do not remember them and, as far as I can tell, I did not and do not have any associated lingering traumas. I only know of them because my parents told me of them as funny stories about my childhood. Again I am not an expert but based on my own experiences I do not believe the child would experience any lingering trauma from this event.; Reply to this comment


by buglady08 May 9, 2012 10:03 AM EDT: Yay for Zack! I loved it! Thank you, parents, for sharing this. Don't know were this park is...looks like Christmastime...but both Chicago and NYC (American Museum of Natural History) have fabulous exhibits on dinasaurs...when Zack's older, of course!; Reply to this comment

by fredisalive May 8, 2012 1:56 PM EDT

if this is also child abuse, then they probably need to redefine or better, get a life! There will be "real scary" stuff in this kids life like in most kids lives than a mechanical dinosaur! I am sure a good parent will assure the kid of how harmless that item is!

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by gumbosally May 9, 2012 12:42 PM EDT: the operative word is"good." parents have a responsibility to help children distinguish between real and faux danger. the "good" parent takes the child's hand and encourages him to walk with her to explore the "dangerous" dinosaur, not ask him whether he's scared. of course he is. his is a tiny, still-uninformed world. to a little kid, a roaring mechanical dino is not harmless.


by ATAT8080 May 8, 2012 1:38 PM EDT: Cute kid.; Reply to this comment


by tmonta67 May 8, 2012 1:38 PM EDT: Regardless of how they might have explained things after the fact, shame on the parents for allowing that child to experience real terror on their watch. It's not funny. Not cute. More innocence stolen in a world ready to rip you apart, and from this video--it starts at home.; Reply to this comment

by michael2040 May 8, 2012 1:26 PM EDT

Yes, your all master parents. I am sure your all perfect and your children are angels. Seriously get a life other than criticizing these people. Later in life this will be fond family memory and something the child and parents will laugh about.

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by tmonta67 May 8, 2012 1:39 PM EDT: Are you sh*tting me? That is a two year old...he will remember the terror for a lifetime, even when he's old enough to rationalize what happened.


by gumbosally May 9, 2012 12:46 PM EDT: it might be funny later, but it sure wasn't funny to that little boy. as a parent, my concern is the possibility this "joke" might inspire night terrors and a resistance to visiting dinosaurs even in a museum. would i have taken my daughter to see that thing when she was 2? yes. but i would also have held her hand and explained to her that it wasn't real. you don't have to be a "master" parent to grasp this.


by UForgotPoland May 8, 2012 1:22 PM EDT: The kid probably thought dinosaurs lived with cavemen, like most Evangelical Americans!; Reply to this comment

by Resin-Smoker May 8, 2012 1:06 PM EDT

Everyone here is taking this video far too seriously.

They're not "Lousy parents" as some of you have called them but just having a bit of fun with their kid.

Next thing ya know you'll all be citing this as child abuse...

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by tmonta67 May 8, 2012 1:40 PM EDT: It most definitely is child abuse: allowing a child to feel real terror when he's too young to distinguish reality from fiction is child abuse.


by Bojax39 May 8, 2012 12:29 PM EDT: Hey, let's torture the kid! Let's scare the snot out of him. We'll film it and when dullards like CBS pick it up it'll go VIRAL. Such fun, huh?

Instead of thanking the kids parents for "sharing" we ought to be prosecuting them for abuse. "Run, Zack!" indeed.....; Reply to this comment


by Bojax39 May 8, 2012 12:22 PM EDT: Hey, let's torture the kid! Let's scare the snot out of him. We'll film it and when dullards like CBS pick it up it'll go VIRAL. Such fun, huh?

Instead of thanking the kids parents for "sharing" we ought to be prosecuting them for abuse. "Run, Zack!" indeed.....; Reply to this comment