Moving out of the family home can be an exciting time for young adults to gain their independence. But one dad has been praised for continuing to find ways to look after his daughter.
In a viral TikTok video shared by Abi Bartolo (@ash.bartolo), the college student can be seen sitting in her car holding a piece of laminated paper. It turns out her dad had printed her car insurance details and questions to ask if she was ever involved in a car accident.
An extract from the text says: “Why girls with fix-it dads are single,” followed by: “If you can’t take care of me like my dad does, then it’s a no.”
So far, the clip captioned: “KEEP YOUR STANDARDS HIGH LADIES. I haven’t lived with my dad for 5 years & he still finds ways to care for me,” has racked up 963,100 views.
However, a OnePoll survey commissioned by Alarm.Com, an American technology company, has previously revealed that DIY dads are declining so women like Bartolo, from Gold Coast, Australia, may struggle to find their match.
According to the poll of 2,000 dads (half Boomers and half millennials), the term “handy dad” is changing. The results found that men born between 1981 and 1996 would rather hire a professional to help than do it themselves.
While they are better than Boomer dads at hi-tech tasks such as home IT, many haven’t got the tools to carry out manual tasks. The poll found that 32 percent of millennials don’t own a hammer whereas 94 percent of baby boomer dads do.
But it looks like these men may be in luck, as those who were raised by a “fix it dad” seemed to have learned a thing or two—according to the video’s comment section.
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At the time of writing, the video has amassed over 79,000 likes and 256 comments.
One user said: “Only child of a fix it dad and I refuse to let any man help me do anything ever. I’ve built ALL the furniture in my room with no help.”
“My fix it Dad was amazing and taught me all I know—I’m now a fix it single mom passing on to my kids,” said another user.
A third commenter said: “My Dad not only was a ‘fix it’ type of Dad, he knew the importance of teaching myself [and] my sisters HOW to do things for ourselves. That way we never were completely dependent on a person to do certain things for us. I will always be thankful for that.”
Newsweek reached out to @ash.bartolo for comment. We could not verify the details of the case.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.