Parents Defend Child Who Yanked Service Dog's Tail By Saying 'He's Little'
The little boy should've been reprimanded.
TikTok Parents of a young child are being criticized for their response after their son harassed a service dog.
In a TikTok video, the woman who owns the service dog shared the short clip, which was met with an influx of comments berating the parents for brushing off their child's disruptive behavior.
The parents defended their child who yanked on a service dog's tail, arguing that 'he's little.'
In the short clip, the woman, who is disabled and uses two service dogs, was seen at a Christmas event where the incident happened.
At the beginning of the video, the mother of the child can be heard exclaiming over the woman's poodle to her young son, who wanted to touch the dog.
The woman's friend then quickly tries to tell the young boy, "Don't touch him, he's working!"
However, the warning comes too late, and the little boy reaches out and yanks on the service dog's tail.
"Hey! Please don't!" the woman exclaimed after noticing the boy running past her after pulling on her poodle's tail.
In response, his mother tries to amend the situation by saying, "It's okay, he's little."
While the little boy is briefly captured by the camera, it's clear that he's not too young to understand being told not to touch something he shouldn't be.
The woman clearly isn't satisfied by the parent's answer, and immediately rebutted with, "It's not okay, though. It's not okay."
Most people condemned the boy's mother for brushing off her son's actions.
The video, which was shared on Reddit, elicited strong reactions from viewers, who criticized the boy's mother for brushing off the actions of her son and not taking accountability or holding him responsible.
"[The] proper response would have been for the mother to tell her son firmly NO that's not okay and then tell the dogs owner, 'I apologize for my child, he's little and does not know any better. I hope your pup is okay,'" one user wrote.
"Then this would have likely never gone beyond the initial interaction."
Another user added, "'it's okay, he's little turns into 'boys will be boys' and then finally 'my son would never do something like that oh my God how did this happen.'"
"The problem is entirely the parent's response, which should have begun teaching the child how bad that was by making it clear during an apology to the service dog’s person," a third user chimed in.
"Then the kid needs to be told directly what they did was wrong, why it was wrong, and get them to agree they shouldn’t do it again."
Nia Tipton is a writer living in Brooklyn. She covers pop culture, social justice issues, and trending topics. Keep up with her on Instagram and Twitter.