Social media videos of a New Brunswick father’s antics at his kids’ bus stop is spreading smiles at a time when people could use a good laugh.
For the past week, Trent Harper of Petitcodiac, N.B., could be spotted at the end of his driveway dressed in a tickle truck of often ill-fitting Halloween costumes to greet his kids at the bus stop.
Harper said he wanted to make his kids chuckle, who are all attending school amid the pandemic.
“They got to wear the mask all day and just everything you can’t go out and do your friend stuff like normal,” he said.
Harper has squeezed himself into a variety of outfits, including a Spider-Man costume bursting at the seams and a blow-up dinosaur.
“Everything has just been so serious. If I can act like a fool for two minutes and give somebody a giggle,” he said it’s worth it.
His wife, Tamara Harper, said she records the chaos and posts it to social media and the videos are going viral.
“It embarrasses the kids but we have been dealing with it for 15 years now and is a normal day-to-day thing for us, I guess,” she said, adding that her husband has always been a jokester.
Trent Harper said friends and even strangers have been reaching out thanking him for the laughs. But the biggest payoff for the dad is mortifying his oldest teen, 13-year-old Teagan, who can’t scurry off the bus fast enough.
“He is not enjoying it so much,” jokes Harper.
Teagan said kids and parents at his school have been praising his father’s comedic spirit.
“They are always saying it is so good what your dad is doing.”
The teen said, albeit with a smile, that the whole ordeal has been a little embarrassing.
But the grin on Harper’s son’s face as he scurries into the house suggests maybe, just maybe, he feels that what his dad is doing to lift people’s spirits during such a rough time isn’t so bad — even if he’d never be willing to admit it.
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