‘Bean Dad’ tries to teach daughter a lesson, opens a can of worms
NEW YORK• A fathers parked a social media outcry after he tweeted about forcing his nine- year- old daughter to learn how to use a tin opener — or go without food.
John Roderick, a Seattle- based musician and podcaster, shared the story on Saturday on Twitter, explaining that it began when his daughter asked him to make baked beans.
After she brought him a tin-opener and can of beans, he asked her how she thought a tin-opener worked, he wrote.
When she said she did not know, he said he realized “a teaching moment just dropped into my lap — Apocalypse Dad was overjoyed,” he wrote.
Explaining that he wanted his daughter to learn a new skill, he said she tried, tearfully, on and off for six hours, to figure it out, at one point telling him: “I hate you.”
He added: “She was next to me grunting and groaning trying to get the thing open. I should say that spatial orientation, process visualization and order of operation are not things she ... intuits. I knew this would be a challenge.”
Eventually she did manage to open the tin and he cooked the beans for her.
Roderick, 52, who was given the nickname “Bean Dad,” was soon on the receiving end of an onslaught of social media criticism, berating him for “poor parenting” and “neglect.”
Jason Schreier, a journalist, wrote: “I feel like it’s super valuable to teach kids that they’re not alone in
he should have just fed her and then showed her how to use a damn can opener.
the world and that there’s no shame in asking other people for help and support.”
Brooklyndad, who regularly tweets about parenting, said: “He should have just fed her and then showed her how to use a damn can opener instead of leaving her hungry for six hours. That’s abusive.
“She’s nine years old and some of us don’t learn very well when we’re hungry, regardless of age. Jeez.”
A smaller number backed Roderick, saying children should be challenged, to encourage problem solving.
Roderick, who currently performs with indie rock band The Long Winters, did not reply to media requests for comment but did defend himself on Twitter.
“Six hours is the length of time between meals. Lunch at noon, dinner at six. They’re literally saying child abuse,” he wrote. He added that the backlash was “astonishing ... My kid is fine everybody.”
Roderick then deleted his account after some allegedly racist, anti- Semitic and homophobic tweets resurfaced.