Culture

The Internet Has Fallen In Love With The Dad Teaching Fatherless Kids Basic Skills On YouTube

Rob from 'Dad, How Do I?' started the channel after his own father left him at age 14.

by Michelle Rennex  22 May 2020
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In just four days, Rob Kenney’s YouTube channel Dad, How Do I? jumped from 14,000 subscribers to a whopping 1.5 million.

While the jump in following was significant, the attention Rob’s channel received was more than well deserved. You see, Rob started Dad, How Do I? just a month ago to help teach young people, who have no fathers, the life skills that dads often impart.

This is because when Rob was 14, his own father left him and his seven siblings to be with another woman. Leaving him to learn the life lessons that school doesn’t teach you on his own, Rob had to master these skills for his own children.

Now, taking the wisdom he’s learnt from having to grow up without a father figure of his own, Rob has decided to share the skills that he taught himself for other kids who may also be struggling.

While speaking to Shattered Magazine, Rob shared that his ultimate goal in life was never wealth or success, but rather to raise good adults.

“I never wanted to be wealthy. I never wanted to be necessarily successful,” Rob said. “My goal in life was to raise good adults — not good children but good adults — because I had a fractured childhood.”

But once Rob accomplished his goal — with his adult daughter gathering degrees to work with kids and his son becoming a software engineer — he realised that he had so much knowledge, but no one left to share his learnings with.

So quarantine pushed Rob into finally start sharing these life skills via Dad, How Do I? as a way to help those who might be in need — like children in broken families or those with absent parents.

His channel features an array of videos on essentials like how to tie a tie, shave your face and change a tire, all the way to equally important tasks like “how to be good to yourself“.

But it wasn’t until earlier this week that people really began taking notice of the channel. Thanks to London-based content creator Faisal Tre Shah, the internet was properly introduced to ultimate dad, Rob Kenney, and his mission to just help people with things they might not know how to do.

From Faisal’s initial tweet, people across Twitter, Reddit and TikTok flocked to Dad, How Do I? and flooded his comment sections with love and admiration, which obviously overwhelmed the internet’s new dad.

In response to all the attention, Rob naturally responded with a dad joke in the thank you video he posted two days ago — after just hitting 400,000 subscribers.

“When I first started doing this with my daughter, I thought there might be a need because [me and my children] talk basically every day and it’s more than just how to fix things, it’s how to manage your life,” Rob said to camera. “I thought if I could help a few, I could be happy.”

But as the attention continued to flow in and Rob hit the 1.5 million subscriber mark, he released another video today titled “I am proud of you!”

In this video he apologised for not releasing a scheduled video for the week and continued the thanks, along with another necessary dad joke about almond diets.

“I’ve been reading your comments as much as I can… but one of the comments I usually give a thumbs up to whenever I see it is ‘protect this man at all costs’,” Rob said in his latest video. “I love that. Please! I need it, I’m overwhelmed by all this.”

Signing off with a little advice, Rob implored his followers to believe in themselves and ended the video in the sweetest way possible. “I love you,” Rob said before switching off the camera. “I’m proud of you. God bless you.”

You can follow Rob and Dad, How Do I? on YouTube here.