BILLINGS — A Montana man, who goes by the name The Bearded Bard on TikTok, shared a video on April 6 showing his appreciation for two teen boys playing with his seven-year-old son at Get Air Trampoline Park.
“If you live in Billings, Montana and your teenage sons were at Get Air yesterday, you should be really proud of them. They’re awesome,” the man said in his video.
The Bearded Bard has 2.1 million followers on TikTok, and the video he posted has nearly 400,000 likes.
Sixteen-year-olds Shikai Bowens and Kaycee Bellamy were the two captured in the video. They said they go to the trampoline park every other weekend.
“We could tell he wanted to hang out with us, you know,” Bowens said on Sunday. “It costs nothing to be nice, you know? So, that’s what we do.”
In the video, The Bearded Bard mentions that both boys were helping his son bounce higher and trying to help him flip. If his son went too high, one of the boys would try to catch him.
Bowens and Bellamy both said they have younger siblings, so playing with the seven-year-old came naturally to them.
“He was like, looked like he wasn’t enjoying his time there. So, we just let him play with us,” Bellamy said.
The TikTok video has made national news and a lot of recognition online.
Bowens' mother Malia Bowens said she raised Shikai and five siblings as a single mother, so seeing the kind things said about her son and his friend online has been reassuring.
“I was floored, I was like this is just so great,” Malia Bowens said. “I remember just spending countless nights just crying myself to sleep wondering, am I doing the right thing? Am I a good enough mom? And every day I jump on that TikTok and I’m still getting flooded with comments, 'Good job mom.' 'You raised a good son, this is what the world needs.'”