I wish the takeaway from “bean dad” was not “this
one specific guy is a bad person,” but that the very, very common “they’ll do it
when they’re hungry/tired/bored enough” attitude towards children
isn’t a good one.
If
you can understand that this
isn’t a good way to teach a child to use a can opener, consider
that maybe the
kid who’s been told they can’t move from the table until they
finish their homework, who’s been visibly struggling to
focus for hours and
crying out of frustration isn’t
just being stubborn?
I
don’t especially care if this guy is run off twitter, it just rubs
me the wrong way that there’s an obvious desire to say “this
guy is the worst parent in the world”
instead of “this is an attitude
that a lot of normal and
entirely well-meaning parents
have, and
it can
be harmful to children.”