Great-Grandpa Helps Toddler—Whom He Never Thought He'd Meet—Learn To Walk

The moment a great-grandpa helps a year-old toddler learn how to walk has brought the internet to tears.

Using a walking frame, Jeri, 88, and his great-granddaughter Ocean can be seen navigating their way around a living room.

The heartwarming TikTok video, captioned "Your grandpa didn't think he would live long enough to meet his great-granddaughter but he helped her learn to walk," has garnered 2.9 million views.

"Seeing my grandparents become great-grandparents is a true blessing," added Ocean's mom Brianna, 24, in the caption.

The stay-at-home mom told Newsweek: "It was a very emotional moment that made my heart so full.

"Their bond is very special; Ocean loves to go on walks with him and steal his newspaper.

"She took her first steps on Christmas morning and he was ecstatic. He was so surprised at how fast she grew up!"

In the United States, about 2.55 million children lived in a household with their grandmother and grandfather, according to Statista. The data also revealed 486,000 children under the age of 3 lived in a household where both a grandmother and grandfather were present during the same year.

Hilary Sims, the founder of Life Balance Counselling, told Newsweek: "Grandparents have time to listen to their grandchildren, whereas parents can be very busy juggling work and family life and don't always have as much time to listen as children would like. Children have different relationships with their grandparents and parents.

"Grandparents will have more time to do fun things and spend time with their grandchildren. Parents are the ones that children see as disciplinarians and have to do all the everyday life things, like getting the children to school, homework, etc, all the things that children do not see as fun."

Natasha Page, a psychotherapist, added: "In families where there are mixed cultures, it can be particularly helpful in giving young people a sense of identity and understanding that side of their heritage at a deeper level."

More than 698,000 TikTok users have liked the popular clip that has more than 2,600 comments.

One comment has racked up 54,400 likes, it said: "The age where they both need a walker."

Another user said: "Balling my eyes out."

"The most precious thing I've seen in a long while—what a beautiful memory to have documented," said another person.

If you have a family dilemma, let us know via life@newsweek.com. We can ask experts for advice, and your story could be featured on Newsweek.