3-year-old girl puts preschooler in headlock because he asked her to marry him: 'I took him down'

Editor's Note: This article was originally published on July 8, 2021. It has since been updated.

When a boy asked a 3-year-old Missouri girl to marry him, she put him in a headlock. Kynlee McFetridge matter-of-factly explained that it had to be done. When her teacher at her St. Charles, Missouri, preschool and her parents asked her about it, she simply said, “I took a headlock down on Jack and took him down. Because kids don’t get married so that’s why I put a headlock down on him.” A video of the 3-year-old explaining why she put the boy, Jack, in a headlock has been liked by many, reported Good Morning America. 

The video captured by her mom, Kristen McFetridge, was posted on YouTube. In the video, her mom asks, "What happened at school?" Kynlee McFetridge replies, "I put him in a headlock and took him down." After her mother tells, "I don't think you're supposed to do that," the 3-year-old indignantly says, "That's the greatest thing ever." Kristen tells her daughter to not do that anymore and asks, "Are you happy," before prompting her to say "YESS?" in the cutest manner.

It was Kynlee's father, Scott McFetridge, who first learned about the incident when he picked her up from school. He noticed that she was marked "pink" on the school's color-coded behavior chart and pink indicated "not good." McFetridge was concerned and checked up with her teacher at the Missouri preschool. McFetridge said the teacher couldn't stop laughing as she described Kynlee holding the boy in a headlock. 

McFetridge said he was trying his best to not laugh out loud as the teacher narrated the incident. “I was trying to be a good dad and reprimand her, but it was pretty hilarious,” said her father. “It was hard for me to stop laughing and put her in timeout but we made it happen.” The 3-year-old had, in fact, learned a little wrestling from her father. McFetridge started wrestling with Kynlee when she was younger to help her gain strength and coordination. Jack certainly found out. McFetridge added that his daughter was born with a heart condition and had open-heart surgery when she at just 5 months old. Shortly after her surgery, the couple posted a photo of Kynlee next to a placard reading: "I survived open-heart surgery, what's your superpower."

"It’s not like I taught her [a headlock],” said McFetridge, defending himself. “I was just trying to get her stronger and coordinated and I guess she figured out what I was doing and I didn’t really realize she learned it.” He described the 3-year-old as a "firecracker" who is wise beyond her years. McFetridge added that Kynlee knows what she did was wrong and said that she and Jack are still “really good buddies.”

McFetridge joked about his daughter putting boys in a headlock when she is a teenager and to be fair, it's not a bad skill set to have. “Every dad wants their little girl to put a headlock down on a boy, especially one who had a rough start like her,” said McFetridge. “Hopefully she can still do that in about 12 years.”