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Two days into the New Year and a father already has enraged Twitter users with a tale about how his child learned to use a can opener, and now he has apologized for it.
Musician and podcaster John Roderick, 52, shared the unconventional way he taught his 9-year-old daughter how to open a can of baked beans. The lengthy 23-part story was shared on Saturday evening and quickly went viral due to its do-it-yourself attitude.
"So, yesterday my daughter (9) was hungry and I was doing a jigsaw puzzle so I said over my shoulder ‘make some baked beans.’ She said, ‘How?’ like all kids do when they want YOU to do it, so I said, ‘Open a can and put it in pot.’ She brought me the can and said ‘Open it how?’" Roderick began his Twitter thread, which has since been deleted. "’With a can opener!’ I said, incredulous. She brought me the can opener and we both stared at it. I realized I’d never taught her to use it. Most cans now have pull-tops. I felt like a dope. What kind of apocalypse father doesn’t teach his kid how to use a manual can opener?!?"
John Roderick did not receive the social media engagement he thought he would from a Twitter thread that detailed his daughter's struggle to open a can of beans. (iStock)
Many tweets in, Roderick colorfully explained the challenge he and his daughter faced while she struggled to open the can of beans.
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His daughter had been able to figure out that the wedge, axle and wheel were meant for cutting cans while the handle helped to move the mechanism along the circumference. However, instead of using the can opener horizontally, she was trying to use it vertically.
Roderick added that his daughter asked him to take over the task after she failed in multiple attempts, but he didn’t budge. His daughter later stormed off after he informed her that neither of them would eat until she figured it out.
But, she eventually returned after she cooled off from reading a book and gave the can another try.
"She was fixated on orienting the tool in a few configurations and couldn’t imagine other possibilities. I compared the can opener to other tools," Roderick wrote. "By now we were working on anger-management and perseverance too. She suggested she open the can with a hammer. There were tears."
After more than six hours, Roderick’s daughter finally achieved her mission. He relayed how proud he was of her and joked that now she wants to open every can in the house.
"I know I’m infuriating. I know this is parenting theater in some ways. I suffer from a lack of perseverance myself, and like all parents throughout history I’m trying to correct my own mistakes in the way I educate my child. She sees through this," he explained in one of his tweets.
John Roderick original tweet received more than 18,000 shares as of Monday. (iStock)
Twitter users, on the other hand, weren’t all that impressed with Roderick’s tale. Many have even shared that they believe his method was mean or bordering on child abuse, according to thousands of tweets that use the term "Bean Dad."
"I feel like it’s super valuable to teach kids that they’re not alone in the world and that there’s no shame in asking other people for help and support so imo everyone should read the Bean Dad story and always do the exact opposite," wrote Bloomberg News reporter Jason Schreier on Sunday.
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"The word ‘bad’ is short for Bean Dad," quipped Reply All podcast producer Alex Goldman.
Similarly, "Hood Feminism" author Mikki Kendall critiqued Roderick’s teaching method and suggested that women would be held to a higher standard than men for not feeding their children.
"The funny/not funny thing about the Bean Dad discourse?" she wrote. "If a Mom had tweeted that thread no one would be insisting it was a comedy bit or a lesson in problem solving. The emergency abuse hot line would have rung off the hook three tweets in."
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Interestingly, Roderick’s "OMNIBUS" podcast co-host Ken Jennings attempted to defend him on Monday.
"If this reassures anyone, I personally know John to be (a) a loving and attentive dad who (b) tells heightened-for-effect stories about his own irascibility on like ten podcasts a week," the "Jeopardy!" guest host wrote. "This site is so dumb."
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Roderick did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment.
In tweets on Sunday, Roderick did take a moment to comment on the backlash he’s received.
He informed his 43,700 followers that his daughter is fine and that he thinks people are very opinionated about parenting.
"The best part about being ratio’d by these parenting concern-trolls is that they keep harping on how depriving my kid of baked beans for SIX HOURS is child abuse," he defended. "Six hours is the length of time between meals. Lunch at noon, dinner at six. They’re literally saying CHILD ABUSE."
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Roderick deactivated his Twitter account Monday evening, which he explained the next day was due to "panic."
In a news update he shared on his personal website, Roderick said he misrepresented the story in his Twitter thread and apologized for offending people who have experienced abuse or felt hurt by any of the language used in his tweets.
"My story about my daughter and the can of beans was poorly told. I didn’t share how much laughing we were doing, how we had a bowl of pistachios between us all day as we worked on the problem, or that we’d both had a full breakfast together a few hours before," he wrote in his long apology Tuesday. "I framed the story with me as the a------ dad because that’s my comedic persona and my fans and friends know it’s ‘a bit’. What I didn’t understand when posting that story, was that a lot of the language I used reminded people very viscerally of abuse they’d experienced at the hand of a parent."
Roderick also apologized for "racist, anti-Semitic, hurtful and slur-filled tweets" that were uncovered by critics after he went viral and said he intended them to be "ironic, sarcastic." He blamed his lack of judgement on being "a middle-aged, middle-class straight white male."
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