Independent 2-Year-Old Tells Daddy, 'Worry About Yourself'
When the Hunley family, of Indianapolis, piled into their car on the way to a restaurant in late March, it was business as usual until Dad, Ryan Hunley, attempted to help his two-year-old daughter, August, buckle up in her car seat.
The toddler, whom Hunley calls a "very independent little child," was certainly in no mood to allow her father to help her get situated in the backseat.
"Worry about yourself!," little August firmly stated while pointing her finger to the camera. "You drive! Worry about yourself. You drive."
Apparently August's older sister, Addi, 4, who is sitting to the right of her in the video, is actually the more headstrong of the two girls, and is often told by her parents to "worry about yourself," rather than correcting everyone else all the time.
And as most young children do, August quickly picked up the phrase and turned it around on her daddy.
"My wife and I were giggling about it because that's every day in our house," Hunley told ABCNews.com. "That's not staged or rehearsed. She knows what she wants, how she wants it and when she wants it. They're both like that. But polite though. It's not malicious or mean, they're just independent women. They're their mama, for sure. I would much rather raise a child like that than a passive one."
Hunley recorded the interaction and uploaded the video to his Youtube account, which he uses primarily for family that lives far away.
"You want me to help?" Hunley asks August in the video as she struggles with the buckles.
"No, thank you," she calmly replies at first.
"What do you want me to do?" Hunley asks again.
"Worry about yourself," she answers, seemingly annoyed at his offer.
Hunley says his daughter's opinionated personality is nothing out of the ordinary.
"We're raising our kids to voice their opinion and not be afraid to share what's on their mind," Hunley said. "It doesn't mean they're being disrespectful, I just don't want them to get walked all over by the world. I love it. This really is a reflection of how spirited she is and confident and stubborn she can be."
Since Hunley originally uploaded the video to YouTtube on March 21, it's already surpassed more than 195,000 views.