Why You Should Stop Making Your Kids Breakfast

Dadpack Digest, V16 🌭

Letting children make their own decisions is an essential part of growing up, and for one dad on Reddit that meant taking his 6-year-old daughter out for her birthday dinner at Costco for a celebratory hot dog.

For under $2, you gotta respect a kid who knows a good bargain when she sees one.

This Week From Dadpack

• 💸🔮 Most parents don't care about being grandparents: Prioritizing financial independence and career satisfaction may be more important that carrying on the family name.

• 📰🗞 In case you missed it: All the news you missed this week because you were busy watching this guy on Instagram.

• 🎥😱 Fatherhood in the face of modern technology is a horror show: The new movie M3GAN is not only proof of that, but it's getting great reviews from critics and parents alike.

• 🍳🛌 Stop making your kid breakfast: Unless they are still breastfeeding, children can learn to be more self-sufficient much sooner than you think.

The Blood Stops Here: Why Parents Don't Care About Having Grandchildren

Only 20 percent of parents today care about having grandchildren one day, according to new data from the PEW Research Center. Instead, a vast majority of moms and dads want their kids to prioritize their careers and financial independence.

Perhaps it's due to the growing number of reports about millennials moving back home with their parents, but it seems like mothers and fathers today have one goal only: to get their adult children out of the house one day.

Or it could be because more and more millennials are deciding to delay parenthood themselves, and when you have a kid in your late thirties, you might not be around for when they decide to have children of their own in their late thirties. Maybe it's simply because as more of your peers opt out becoming parents, it's just easier to wrap your brain around you kids eventually doing the same.

In any case, when PEW polled 3,757 parents who had at least one child under 18, they found that 62 percent believe that being a parent is somewhat harder than they anticipated, and 26 percent admitted it was a lot harder. It's entirely possible moms and dads these days don't want to pass on such a difficult job to their kids, just to get the nickname Papa.

Respondents also said that mental health issues like depression and anxiety were their main concerns for their children. So it seems like whatever their individual reasons are for deemphasizing grandkids, most parents these days just want their kids to be happy, and that's difficult enough without putting any additional expectations on them.

You know, almost as difficult as being a parent.

Good News, Dad News

• 🇺🇸🍼 California Rep. Jimmy Gomez, who gained attention for wearing his infant son on his chest in chambers earlier this month, launched a "Congressional Dad Caucus." While this sounds a little bit like the title to the latest buddy comedy, it's mostly about pushing for policies that are good for working families, and potentially a few babysitter recommendations.

• ✌️😔Fathers who have poor co-parenting relationships with mothers are more likely to experience depression, new research warns. Though unsurprising, the findings underscore the importance of getting along with your ex for the sake of your kid's mental health, which is an extension of your own.

• 🛌💤 In more state-the-obvious studies, the rate of insomnia among parents was found to be 111 percent higher, when children had sleep issues. Likewise, the incidence of sleep apnea was 115 percent higher, confirming that when your kids are restless, you're incapable of breathing easy.

• 🏈📺 Sports Illustrated called out The Atlanta Falcons for their groan-worthy dad joke about naming former Saints defensive line coach Ryan Nielsen as the franchise's new defensive coordinator. But to be fair, referencing something as out-of-date as "The Nielsen rating," which lost it's accreditation in 2021, is a timeless dad joke tactic. If you can't make them laugh you may as well confuse them.

The Scariest Robot Doll For Your Next Date Night

With the nostalgia of classic horror film "Chucky," the stressors of modern parenthood, like screen time, and a 94 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, "M3GAN" is a must-see movie for horror-loving dads.

For those unfamiliar, M3GAN is a life-size humanoid robot (who is inexplicably dressed like a Victorian ghost-hipster) designed to be the friend of lonely children like Caddy, whose mother and father died tragically in a car accident. What could go wrong besides everything? If you've ever made a dad-joke about the robot overlords, it's worth seeing how this plays out for yourself.

Critics agree that "M3GAN doesn’t just live up to its promises, it exceeds all expectations by being a sharply funny horror-comedy, a testament to why both genres are still best enjoyed in a packed theater with a game audience," Dylan Roth wrote in The Observer.

Whether it's for a date night, an excuse to see an old friend, or a solo movie, hanging out with a scary doll for two hours could be the perfect break from your kid.

Parting Paternalism: Do Less

Father of seven Richard Wadsworth refuses to wake his kids up for school. The psychiatrist doesn't make them breakfast either, or do their laundry, or "say a single word about anything that they needed to do in the morning," Wadsworth said on TikTok. “I did not tell them to do their homework last night. I did not yell at them that they were going to miss the bus. I did not find their shoes for them.”

Although he notes that his policy may not apply to neurodivergent children, the premise is clear: school-aged children are completely capable of being more self-sufficient than they're often treated like. The main reason parents step in is to protect their kids from from things like getting in trouble for being late to school, having dirty clothes or an empty stomach, or being unprepared for class.

"You're not doing your kids favors by preventing them from experiencing natural consequences," Wadsworth said.

While the comments were mixed, and some parents were defensive about their helicopter tendencies, many agreed with Wadsworth's school of thought. It might seem harsh, but other experts like journalist and educator Esther Wojcicki echo similar sentiments. In her recent book "How to Raise Successful People" Wojcicki shares her secrets to raising two CEOs and a doctor — one of them being, not making her children breakfast.

It's like they say, if you give your kid cereal, they'll eat for a day. But if you teach them to pour a bowl themselves, you might get a few moments to yourself in the morning.

Polling Your Leg