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Toddler Motivating Dad on Playground Goes Viral For All the Right Reasons

This is heartwarming.

by Isabella Bridie DeLeo
CBS News

A video of a toddler encouraging his dad to climb up to him on a playground has gone viral. But why this clip, out of all the billions of others on the internet? Well, 1. Because it’s too cute 2. Right now we need the kind of enthusiasm and motivation that the toddler is gleefully offering his ‘Dada’ and 3. OK, it’s just so darn adorable and we’re starved for serotonin. In this video, which was shared by CBS News on Twitter, the little kid, named Taj Ward, just wants his dad D’Anthony Ward to climb up the mini climbing wall so that they can slide down the playground together, despite his dad insisting that he’s too big. But, it seems that Taj is interpreting his dad’s reticence as him maybe being too afraid to climb up, rather than dad actually just being too tall for it. Taj then becomes his dad’s cheerleader with encouraging words like, “You can do it! You put your foot right here” and “I know you can! Come on, you can do it!”

Clearly Taj is a very kind and supportive kid and D’Anthony, who runs a YouTube channel dedicated to more adorable father and son content fittingly titled The Dad Vlog, saw how precious this moment was and decided to capture it on video. Viewers in the Twitter section commented on how amazing Taj is, writing things like, ‘What a little angel. I feel like I can do ANYTHING now, thanks to him,” and “What a beautiful, compassionate, well-spoken, well-raised little boy!!!” Whenever folks are feeling a little bit down, we should remember Taj’s cheerleading and maybe his kind words will put a little pep in our step. Check out the video below.