This Viral Story About A Dad Making His Daughter Open A Can Of Beans Broke Twitter

If you went on Twitter at any point of the day on Sunday, Jan. 3, you almost definitely saw tweets about Bean Dad. No, not Mr. Bean. Instead, tweets about a viral "Bean Dad" story showed an intense parenting debate play out all over the website.

The man in question is musician and podcaster John Roderick, who created controversy after posting a lengthy Twitter thread about teaching a lesson to his 9-year-old daughter. He explained that after she told him she was hungry, he told her to open a can of baked beans and was shocked that she didn't know how to use a can opener.

Rather than showing her how to use it, Roderick instead told his daughter to figure it out on her own, and insisted that the two wouldn't eat another bite that day until she figured out how to open the baked beans. She was finally able to open the can and eat after six hours.

"I know I'm infuriating. I know this is parenting theater in some ways," he explained at the end of the thread. "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."

Roderick concluded by writing, "The only problem is now she wants to open every f***ing can in the house!"

Naturally, an intense parenting debate erupted on Twitter as phrases like "Bean Dad," "SIX HOURS," and "She's 9" began trending on the site, as people heavily criticized Roderick for his teaching tactic. Many Twitter users also expressed their own views on common parenting mistakes, and better ways to teach children valuable lessons.

On the other hand, some Twitter users were simply annoyed that the Bean Dad discourse had dominated so much of their timelines.

Roderick responded to the heated debate with a series of tweets defending himself, including one that reads, "Somebody had to start off the year with a bang!"

"Maybe not surprisingly, none of the people who hate my can opener story follow me on Twitter, and as far as I can tell none of the people who follow me hate the story," he wrote in another. "Two different worlds. Sometimes a portal opens up between worlds and you get a glimpse of the void."

Whatever your thoughts on this controversial Twitter thread, the "Bean Dad" discourse definitely sparked an interesting debate to kick off 2021.