Dad who threw his son, 7, deals with virus video criticism (exclusive) from the cliff

Parenting is a leap of faith, or in Garrett Gee, you can jump off a cliff.

Gee, the influencer behind the Bucketlist Family Page, went viral after sharing a video of her throwing her 7-year-old son off a cliff on Lake Powell in July 2025. In the clip, Zee stands on a giant cliff along with his son Karihan, giving him what appears to be Peptalk. To help the elementary school student conquer his fear, Zee picks him up and throws him into the water below.

Thousands of people criticised him for raising his child, but Zee invites people who watched the video to see more of his content and understand where he came from.

“If someone encountered that video and only saw it, I would agree with them,” he says to people. “Oh, this looks terrible, and this father is pushing too much on his child.” But anyone who has been on our journey for a long time, they realize how thoughtful and careful we are as parents. ”

While adventure and travel is at the heart of Zee’s content, he also wants to focus on comfort and safety and push the boundaries of a child’s comfort zone.

“When I read the comments, a small part of me felt sad because I was able to see how many people there weren’t the opportunity to try new things and stay in their comfort zone,” Gee says.

“It’s not the best way to live life,” he adds. “When people were very angry or terrified by the video, those were the people I thought.

In the original post, Gee revealed that it’s not “parent advice” or “something (he’s going to give you advice) you’ll try.” He also revealed that this tactic was not the tactic he used with the other two children.

“Each child is completely different, so our parents, discipline, and how to teach us how to do cliffs are completely different 🙂 Certainly the priority is safe. The second is learning that you can do the hard things.

Despite the criticism, Gee says it didn’t affect him “never negatively.”

“I am very confident in how me and my wife are our parents, our intentions, how careful, careful and loving we are,” he tells people. “It didn’t affect me. I understand the nature of the Internet.”

Gee recently celebrated its 10th anniversary after some time to get used to the reality of social media posts. Over the past decade, adventurous families have shared sharks with surfing, tandem scuba diving, sledding in Italy and more.

“As a dad, selfish, I love the opportunities I had to travel together. When we are traveling, we can experience a variety of experiences together 24/7 and explore new places together,” says Zee.

The family first made headlines in 2015 after Snapchat bought Gee’s mobile scan app for $54 million. The content creator, who described himself as a “full-time family travel journalist,” sold everything before leaving his Utah home to travel the world. Since then, the Bucketlist Family Brand has launched Instagram and YouTube channels, attracting millions of followers across the platform.

Gee and his wife, Jessica, traveled with their children to over 100 countries and counting.

For those who want to follow in their footsteps, Gee recommends “start and start.”

“Go on a fun adventure in your own backyard, then create something in an area like your own and build from there to make sure that’s what you want to do,” he says. “We went on an extreme route, sold everything and left the house. Luckily, we loved it, but that’s not for everyone.”

Gee hopes when people see his content they feel inspired to embark on their adventures.

“When we’re making videos, our goal is not to let people watch as much content as possible. That’s the opposite. I want them to be inspired to watch videos, go out and live their lives, turn off the screen, turn off the internet and venture offline,” Gee says.

One of the next adventures involves the release of a book centered around fictional travel accounts. This book was created with input from each child and added fantasy elements to the adventures they shared as a family of five.

Gee says that he is “really fun” to incorporate some of his stories into a new book, taking risks to “normal family” and “deciding to go on an adventure.” Some of the children’s books point out that there is more truth to books than you think.

“If I were a child reading this book that has never heard of a real bucket list family, the whole book seems very fantastical because in this book, the family is appearing in Botswana, as they see babies taking their first steps with Antarctic penguins, so they are climbing into Botswana.

“But the fun part is that everything is based on true stories,” he continues. “And as you reach the end of the book, there’s a real photo collage showing each of these amazing experiences, such as swimming with a whale.”

Above all, Gee says he is “very proud” of the fact that the book is “a family effort, a complete team effort.”

“I love the fact that this book is about family, but it was also written by the whole family,” he says.

The three fathers also plan to take characters and stories from illustrated children’s books and turn them into an animated television series.

“To ensure that families can watch this show together…and not only do you know, but you will not only have fun, humorous, light-hearted adventures, but we will learn these life lessons from countries around the world like our family.”

Bucket List Family and Big Adventure attacked the shelves from Disney Hyperion and National Geographic on October 28th, and can be pre-ordered where the book is on sale.