Outrage has erupted on social media after a well-known travel influencer shared a contentious video where he is seen tossing his young son off a cliff during a family holiday.
Garrett Gee, aged 35 and head of “The Bucket List Family,” a famous influencer clan, shot to fame in 2015 when he cashed in $54 million from selling his mobile scanning app, Scan, to Snapchat.
The former Mormon missionary opted to invest the windfall and adopt a modest lifestyle, prompting him and his wife Jessica, 39, to sell their possessions and embark on a global adventure with their offspring, chronicling their escapades on YouTube and other social platforms as a family travel log.
The family’s travels through more than 90 countries are far from over. Yet, a recent upload while travelling through the US sparked intense backlash. During a family outing to Lake Powell, which straddles Utah and Arizona, on July 12, they trekked to a clifftop overlooking the Colorado River reservoir, where Gee chose to instruct his youngest, Calihan “Cali” Gee, in the art of cliff diving.
The controversial post starts with a disclaimer stating, “Most people won’t love how we teach our kids how to cliff jump.” It then captures Cali pausing at the brink before reaching out for his dad’s hand.
He then recoils, covering his eyes in fear, before Gee hoists the child up and hurls him off the cliff into the water below. Cali’s screams can be heard during the fall before the video transitions to the family’s two older children, Dorothy and Manilla, leaping off the cliff together.
Gee prefaced the post with a disclaimer, seemingly foreseeing the controversy and backlash he and the family would face. “This is NOT parental advice. This is NOT something I advise you try. Also, this is NOT something we’ve done with all of our kids. Each kid is quite different,” he penned.
He later justified the toss by stating that hurling Cali was a calculated decision made with safety as a priority, reports the Mirror US. He asserted he chose a safe height and aimed to prevent his son from hesitating and potentially harming himself.
“He wanted to jump but was not feeling confident… I threw him,” the father of three clarified. He likened the moment to a baby eagle being nudged from its nest.
“Eventually a baby eagle needs to leave the nest… or be tossed out of the nest 😉 and learn HE CAN FLY!” Gee composed. Despite this, the backlash continued to flood in.
“Honest question, no judgment. Did he know he was going to be thrown?” one commenter queried. Gee replied, “YES. He had the choice… He chose to be thrown.”
One critic voiced their concern, saying, “Cliff jumping is very very dangerous! Ask an ER doctor or nurse. How do you reconcile that as a parent?” Another chimed in with criticism about the family’s priorities: “This is about the dad, not about the emotional safety and wellbeing of the family.”
A third slammed the family’s actions as “negligent and irresponsible just for views.”
Gee responded to the backlash with a tongue-in-cheek comment: “Eh, that’s basically everything on the internet these days ;)” He concluded his post with a mix of caution and encouragement: “But warning: teaching your kids to be brave starts to backfire when they become older and begin jumping from heights that you don’t even dare! ! // BE SAFE OUT THERE! YOU CAN DO HARD THINGS! HAVE FUN!”.
However, some responses were supportive, with one commenter praising the parenting approach: “Coming from someone who grew up in a very fear-based/avoid all forms of struggle environment: you training your children to be courageous and to confront their fears is an absolute GIFT to their future selves.”