The Misguided Adventures of Bean Dad (And the Angry Tweets That Followed)

Lately, the internet has been buzzing with the phrase “bean dad.” If you missed it, the story revolves around a clueless, borderline negligent father and his very hungry daughter. Musician and podcaster John Roderick made the ultimate blunder by going to Twitter to explain his interaction with his 9-year-old daughter.

He tweeted that his daughter came to him asking him to make some baked beans for her. This seems like a pretty simple request. A normal parent would have either simply made the girl some baked beans or brought her into the kitchen and showed her how to make them. Not this guy. For some reason, he considered this a teaching moment, all while not actually teaching his daughter anything.

Instead of making her some food, he told her to figure out how to use a can opener on her own, open the can, and make her own beans. Oh yeah, when he realized she was struggling, he didn’t help. It took her six hours before she finally figured out how to open the can (sadly, you can’t read the thread because Roderick deleted his Twitter account after the backlash). Needless to say, the Twitterverse didn’t give Roderick the praise he expected.

Photo: Image Source (Getty Images)

The Bean Dad story is ridiculous. 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 9 years old, and some of us don't learn very well when we're hungry, regardless of age. Jeez.

— BrooklynDad_Defiant!☮️ (@mmpadellan) January 3, 2021

One user called the story “ridiculous” and said that this whole ordeal borders on child abuse.

Teacher here.

1. Kids learn best when they aren’t hungry.

2. Everyone learns differently and different approaches (eg. A guiding hand) are helpful, especially if/when someone’s struggling.

3. When a child is frustrated to the point of tears, you’ve lost your teachable moment.

— Apoxon; Phone Gremlin (@apoxon) January 3, 2021

Another user explained the specifics of teaching children. Not surprisingly, none of the steps involved making a child cry while making them go hungry for six hours.

While we can assume that “bean dad” is pretty pompous, we can’t assume that he learned anything from this exercise and the Twitter uproar. A grown man who thinks Twitter will agree with his “teaching moment” that led to his daughter going hungry for six hours probably isn’t swayed by strangers on the internet. Let’s just hope the next time she wants to learn something new, she goes to her mom instead.

Here are a few more reactions to the whole ordeal:

To everyone dunking on #BeanDad for smugly writing a treatise about how it was a teachable moment to not feed his 9yo for six hours:

Please, continue.

— JC Lau @ home! (@drjclau) January 3, 2021

https://twitter.com/LeftCoastLawRev/status/1345882618508632065

I'm never deleting this app. #BeanDad pic.twitter.com/LiHFlDFA00

— Kassia (@Kass_cya) January 3, 2021

It's been six hours. #beandad pic.twitter.com/VMaFtk1Gv6

— Daniel Ziegener (@sofakissen) January 3, 2021

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