For public spaces to be safe for everyone, we all need to be considerate of each other. This reality includes even such magical places as Disneyland. Well, children usually get very excited in such places, which means they sometimes forget to be mindful of their surroundings, which brings their parents the responsibility to make sure nothing bad happens.
Today we're going to talk about a video of a parent who brought many netizens secondhand embarrassment. It's of dad who, while in Disneyland, paid more attention to his phone than his kid, who got knocked over by Mickey Mouse. The character didn't shy away from shaming the parent and got praised for it online.
More info: TikTok
Even Disneyland's magic doesn't erase parental responsibilities
Image credits: kaylaontour
A video proving the idea above recently went viral on TikTok and Reddit
We’re pretty sure we don’t have to introduce to you what Disneyland is. Whether you live nearby or not, it’s likely that you have heard of it or have even dreamed about visiting it.
The Disneyland park was opened in Anaheim, California, in 1955. It's the only Disney theme park that was designed and constructed under the supervision of Walt Disney himself. Nowadays there are 12 other Disney theme parks going by various names, from "Magic Kingdom Park" to "Disney’s Hollywood Studios," and so on.
You might wonder why these parks are so popular. What drives people to want to visit them? Well, this Quora answer says it’s because Disney theme parks are an immersive and entertaining environment for everyone, no matter their age -- children, their parents and Disney fans. There are rides, shows, fireworks, shopping, dining – basically, everything you need to enjoy yourself.
Image credits: kaylaontour
In it, the Mickey Mouse accidentally knocks over a running boy, picks him up, and then looks for the parent who wasn't watching over his kid
As this Reddit user said, being in the park helps them to forget about their troubles and they feel nothing but happiness there. Basically, quite a few people think that innocent escapism is something that allows Disney and its parks to be so popular. After all, the whole concept of Disney is celebrating childlike innocence, good winning against evil, and so on.
So, since the park is so popular, most of the time it’s crowded with people of all ages. That means getting lost or hurt there is always a risk, especially for children. Parents, or whoever else brought them to the park, are responsible for preventing anything like that, if possible. But some parents don’t take this task so seriously.
Image credits: kaylaontour
When he finds the dad, the character starts gesturing that he should watch his kid in such a crowded place and not his phone
That brings us to today’s video. In it, we can see a small boy running around Disneyland and accidentally getting knocked over by a Mickey Mouse character. Granted, the people wearing those costumes usually don’t have certain parts of their vision, for instance, peripheral vision, as the costume itself obstructs it. That means that sometimes, like in the filmed case, they simply do not notice something, like a child running behind them.
The Mickey in the video helped the boy to stand up but wasn’t planning to let this situation slide. His father could have prevented the accident, but instead, he wasn’t paying as much attention as he should have. So, the actor playing the mouse decided to explain that to him.
The video captures Mickey Mouse gesturing to the man that he should have been watching his kid instead of using his phone, making sure the kid was okay, and then casually walking away while people around were watching.
Image credits: Héctor Vásquez / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
The video quickly gathered a lot of views online and sparked a theme of parents prioritizing their phones instead of their kids
Well, people online couldn’t take their eyes off this interaction either. The video posted on the @kaylaontour account currently has 12M views, which, combined with additional people on Reddit, makes a large crowd.
The majority of people on both platforms were impressed by such a responsible theme park employee and annoyed by the irresponsible father. They also talked about how embarrassing it must have been to be scolded by a Disney character, but acknowledged that it was needed – the phone shouldn’t have been more important to the dad than his small kid.
Well, maybe this incident will help the man learn his lesson. Or not, as for some netizens, the dad seemed pretty clueless, even with Mickey’s instructions. Either way, maybe at least the kid himself will act a little bit more carefully next time.
Image credits: Lyle Hastie / Unsplash (not the actual photo)
Watch the video here
"That wasn't Mickey, that was Michael Mouse": people also shared feeling secondhand embarrassment for the dad and respect for the responsible theme park employee
