‘Now this is top tier parenting’: Mom sends 5-year-old son off in the woods in a Bigfoot costume to give her bestie a big scare

As we get older, it becomes easier and easier to spot the impact that your parents had on your personality, but every now and again, there comes a parent-child relationship wherein the apple falls so close to the tree, they might as well share the same root.

These are the girls that are absolutely their father’s daughter, the boys that can’t be told apart from their mothers, and the children that are most aptly-characterized by the rambunctious whimsy that their folks likely channel in their adult lives. TikTok‘s @kay_leahh, in all likelihood, is one of these parents, because why else would she enable her tot’s charmingly chaotic, thoroughly adorable prankster mojo?

Here’s the thing, folks; when your five-year-old son requests to be dressed up as an adolescent cryptid for the sake of pranking your best friend into a momentary fit of hysterics, you need to realize that he’s probably taking after you, because this isn’t the sort of thing that five-year-olds gravitate to on their own. At that point, he’s no longer just your son; he is your ward. The point of no return has been reached.

We never actually get to see the aftermath of the boy’s prank, but — despite the pleads from the comments section — this is ultimately for the best. The first success of a prankster’s offspring, you see, is a very sacred and personal rite of passage that’s better off not being commercialized for the purpose of public consumption. The leadup, however, is free game, as evidenced by the decidedly entertaining presence of the Pink Panther theme song here. Ah, nostalgia.

The less greedy commenters were all too happy to tip their hat to this budding comedian, encouraging Kay to make sure he never loses this gleeful streak of mischief. Others, deprived of the catharsis that no doubt came from her friend’s reaction, tried to envision the result for themselves, with one quite transgressively pointing out that the nearby woodland means there could be deer hunters nearby, and so dressing up as a nondescript animal may not be the wisest move.

It’s a valid concern in the form of a gallows joke, but relatively speaking, hunting accidents aren’t a particularly pressing issue. According to the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, 2015 to 2019 saw an average of 11 people die each year from hunting accidents; an average that’s less than half of what it once was in the early 2000s. Between the United States and Canada, reports of shooting-related hunting accidents number around 1,000 per year, with 10 percent of them leading to death.

This is to say that hunting accidents — as with any accidents — do happen, but common sense and a sturdy disposition is generally all you need to prevent them. Never mind the fact that Kay’s son — in his miniature Bigfoot costume and intent to discombobulate his mother’s friend’s nervous system — happens to be embodying the antithesis of common sense and sturdy dispositions at the moment. But you know what? He’s completely and utterly valid for it.