A dad was criticised for encouraging his nine-year-old to open a tin of baked beans by herself.
Over the weekend, John Roderick hoped to teach his daughter a life lesson when she was hungry.
The musician and podcaster, who had more than 40,000 followers, tweeted: “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?’ So I said, “How do you think this works?”
“She studied it and applied it to the top of the can, sideways.”
John continued: “She struggled for a while and with a big, dramatic sigh said, ‘Will you please just open the can?’
“Apocalypse Dad was overjoyed: a Teaching Moment just dropped in my lap…
“Eventually she had it all figured out. She had the placement of the tool, she could turn the handle and the can would spin (we were down on the floor by this point), but the ‘kachunk’ of puncturing the lid still eluded us.
“We’d been at it for HOURS on and off. We were hungry.”
After hours of perseverance, the lid finally popped off and the family ate their dinner.
John jokingly added: “This is an allegory of triumph… the only problem is now she wants to open every f***ing can in the house!”
The thread about a child grappling with a baked beans can garnered thousands of likes when it was posted on January 2.
But despite some seeing it as a valuable teaching moment, others accused the podcaster of “child abuse”.
One Twitter user argued: “Having kids ‘take a harder path is maybe telling them they can’t use a calculator for their maths homework.
“It’s not making them work six hours to open a can of beans like they were in some Dickensian work house.”
Another accused: “This is a fun little exercise for 15, maybe 30 minutes, but six hours is neglect.
And a third claimed: “Speaking as a teacher this is an absolutely terrible way to teach. It’s also child abuse.”
John responded to these comments on Twitter, writing: “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.
“Six hours is the length of time between meals. Lunch at noon, dinner at six. They’re literally saying CHILD ABUSE.
“Somebody had to start the new year off with a bang.”
Unfortunately for John, this defence didn’t do much to stop the criticism.
He’s been branded the “first Twitter villain of 2021” and people are now referring to him as “Bean Dad”.
Following the debate, social media users unearthed some of John’s controversial old posts that mentioned topics like “rape” and the “Nazis”.
John’s Twitter profile has since disappeared off the internet and the My Brother, My Brother, and Me podcast announced it would no longer be using music.
Daily Star has contacted John Roderick for comment and are awaiting a response at the time of publication.
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