We all have that one song we get a little too emotional over (Joni Mitchell, anyone?). Four-year-old Jackson Blitch found his early in life. In a viral YouTube video with more than 300,000 views and counting, Jackson has a good cry to A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera’s "Say Something."
"Do you want me to change it?" his dad asks in the video. "I don't want to play it if it makes you sad!" No, the boy signals, and gives a thumbs up to keep it playing. It’s hard to imagine a 4-year-old could be so in touch with his emotions.
His dad, Mark Blitch, said Jackson always gets emotional when there’s a sad melody playing. We asked if there could have been anything else that made the little guy tear up. ”There wasn't anything else that he could have been reacting to because we were going to his grandparents’ house, which is a place he loves,” Blitch told TODAY.com. “So when he asked me to turn the station back to the sad song, I was very surprised. And since I work in the video production field, I took my phone out and started recording, thinking that it would just be cute for my wife and my family to see.”
Blitch described Jackson as the “happiest kid in the world” who “isn't afraid to bare his soul.” If he sees his younger brother, 16-month-old Xander, cry, he’ll cry. “If someone in a movie he is watching is in peril — 'The Lion King' or 'The Croods' — he loses it," Blitch said. "As parents, my wife and I don't want to traumatize our son, obviously, but we feel like it's our responsibility to assure him that it's okay to get emotional about things that affect us. It has allowed some great teaching moments for us.”
Blitch decided to post the video to YouTube, thinking it would be cool to send to A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera. The reaction he’s gotten has surprised the whole family. "I never expected this to happen," he said.
Lindsay Tigar is iVillage's associate parenting editor. Follow her Twitter, Pinterest and Google+.