iStockphoto / Carol Hamilton
There is no all-encompassing handbook when it comes to parenting and even if there was, nobody would read it because it would be the longest book ever written. Of course, there are plenty of books out there to teach parents what to expect but when raising kids and how to handle many situations but in the instance below where a coyote was chasing a little girl, the dad had no idea how to respond and as a parent of a young kid myself, I can totally relate.
This went down in Portland, Oregon and the incident was captured on the home’s security cameras. The little girl can be seen running up to the house and saying a coyote was chasing her. She comes in hot yelling ‘Dad! There’s a coyote’ to which he responds ‘No…’ only to turn around and see the coyote chasing her is less than 2 feet away at one point.
Dad’s response? ‘Oh s—!’ Which I can totally relate to. I try my hardest to shield my 5.5yo son from profanity so he doesn’t pass it along at school and I have to talk to a teacher about it but in a moment like that, there’s no parenting manual for how to respond… Check it out:
@cbsnews Video shows the terrifying moment a coyote chased a little girl through her backyard in Portland, Oregon, as her father, her brother and a neighbor frantically run around to get away from it. Her dad told a local news outlet everyone was okay, but a “little scared that it was chasing them.” #news #portland #oregon #coyote
The other extremely relatable aspect to this is how the dad’s response is to just stand guard in the driveway after it all went down. Dad doesn’t know what to do, he just knows that he should be doing something and in that moment it means standing out there in case the coyote comes back so he can look large and in charge.
The brothers also handle it all magnificently… ‘There’s a coyote! There’s a coyote! Get inside! Get inside!’ and then… of course, they don’t go inside. One of the little boys also stands out there with what appears to be a NERF gun in case the coyote comes back, all while the dad appears to be trying to process (1) what just happened and (2) how nothing in life can prepare you for parenting moments like that.
At the end of the day, the dad did the right thing by picking up the daughter. But it would have been advisable to get everyone in the house quickly. Seeing a coyote in the daylight in a Portland neighborhood like that raises red flags… Also, he could have just picked it up and flung it like this guy from 3 years ago:
That clip never gets old.