Chicken Terrifies Boy in Florida

[Strumhead]

Before this blows into an out-of-control hysteria amongst a few members, I need to clarify a couple of points about my video. First--specifically to chickenannie and Southern28Chick--ladies, you need to be much more careful in your observations. Regardless of whether you were titillated by it or not, my neighbor in the blue shirt was not "scratching himself." He has the most curious childlike habit of quickly fidgeting and wringing his hands together when he laughs hard. It's just that when you bring your hands together in front of yourself, they end up exactly where God put them....at arms length away. Squarely in your lap! So please let's not have any more comments that far off base.

Regarding the father "forcing" his son to feed the chicken, I could not agree with you more that it would have been pushing the situation way too far....which is why I stopped him. I was trying to capture a situation that just happened to happen. I was not trying, or interested in, pushing up a childs fear level. Let's keep in mind that in reality the child was in zero level of danger. What made the video funny to me was the irrational correlation between reality and the child's perception. While we had a few good laughs at his "expense" let's not forget that there was an important lesson being learned. To all of the women who would have yanked this child quickly out of this situation of zero actual danger, I submit that you would have needlessly prolonged his irrational fear for an indefinite period of time. If you watched the third video you would know that this childs fear level went from 95%+ at the beginning down to about 25-30% by the end. Yet this is not the end of my psychomeddling! I want this child to have a fear level in the 5-10% range. I guess you could say that I subscribe to the late Steve Irwin's theory of preparation for bravery, except for the fact that I'm "dangling" little boys over chickens instead of crocodiles. But the principle is the same. This very afternoon this same boy petted a chicken--and smiled--while I held it. So, at least to me, great progress has been made.

 

[Cheekon]

Um don't you think that was kind of cruel?

 

[chickenannie]

Strumhead,
Being unaware of your neighbors strange hand-fidgeting problem, I thought it was what it looked like. It's also easy to be snarky about people's behavior when we don't know the people, so my apologies if anyone was offended. It was tongue in cheek humor at best, or worst.

 

[LittleChickenRacingTeam]

That video is SOOOOO FUNNY.

 

[TheOLDNewChick]

Strumhead: Steve Irwin fan?



So am I.

 

[CarriBrown]

My 2 cents is that the child wasn't in danger, and even though he was scared, he was also curious. I thought it was funny... he was big and tough when the hen was turned around but not when she faced him!

irrational correlation between reality and the child's perception

That's exactly what it is.

Strumhead, welcome to the forum.​

 

[Cassandra]

My husband & I had this same discussion while watching the video (about whether it was unnecessarily scaring the boy.) We both found it really funny and cute, though. That is an adorable kid!

I have a four and a half year old who, for the past three years I have watched him overcome his fear of one situation after another. He was the same way as this little boy. Nervous at first, but you can tell he really wants to do it. And if given enough time, he will work up the nerve.

One instance that comes to mind is when he was about two, we went to a fair and there was a firetruck there for kids to look in and climb on. For an hour we walked around the thing and he would get close and I could tell he wanted to touch it, but he would scream if I tried to take him too close. But we hung out long enough and he finally let the fireman hoist him up into the seat and flash the lights and things.

It wasn't MEAN. They weren't holding the boy down and making him pet chickens. They were observing him and encouraging him while he worked things out for himself. Kids should get that opportunity a lot more often. That's developmentally common for his age. Kids will approach something unknown and run back to mom (or dad) to make sure they are still there and everything is ok.

Some of us can laugh about it and some can't. That's fine, too.

Cassandra

 

[airmom1c05]

How NEAT! I'm looking forward to the next one. I just KNOW he will feed them eventually. He sure is a cute little boy!

I gave my son a stuffed animal called "Lurky" for Christmas when he was about that age. Everyone in my family was here when he opened it. It terrified him, and no one knew why! We all laughed and tried to encourage him. Finally, my mom made up a song about Lurky and his long, big nose, and it became his favorite stuffed animal. It was funny because it was so unexpected. I, in particular was flabbergasted because I thought he would LOVE it! LOL!

 

[max13077]

2:06 I love it when the kid looks behind himself, stops crying, looks up and says something to the guy, then looks at the chicken and starts crying again!

 

[Strumhead]

Um don't you think that was kind of cruel?

The short answer: No.

It would have been cruel to not pick him up and put a little separation between him and all those chickens that just started coming out of the woodwork. It would have been cruel to abandon him instead of staying there by his side holding on to him and making sure that nothing unsafe did happen. It would have been cruel to push or force him into having contact with the chickens that was not of his own choice. But none of that happened. He was held and guarded. And when his dad inclined toward using a little bad judgement, I didn't permit it. So maybe the dad even learned a little lesson. I think there might have been another small lesson for this boy in that no one around him came in swooping him away as though there actually was real danger. That surely would have given him the impression that there WAS something to be fearful of. Then how long would he have to go to come to terms with his "justified" fear. I think the evidence speaks for itself in that 40 minutes after first encountering this terror, he laughs and giggles and even reaches out to touch one of the birds--even though he doesn't actually have the courage yet to do it! He is so interested! It won't be long before he has the courage to feed a chicken and learns something about its habits and how to feed it without being in any danger or having any fear at all.

To everyone who thought the video was funny and the boy was sooooooo cute.....I'm right there with ya.​