Dad Takes Kids On Solo Outing Without Mom & Claims 'If You Look Clueless Enough, Other Better Parents Will Step In And Help'
A "non-default parent" proves it's possible to do more for his family.
TikTok A self-proclaimed non-default parent gave his wife the gift of a weekend alone so that she could attend the Taylor Swift concert in Houston, Texas with her friends.
Justin Kellough explained that he wanted his wife to have “a full weekend without children and with her friends and with her favorite Taylor Swift,” and offered the advice that “if you’re a non-default parent, taking the kids away, even for an hour, is a gift for days… So if you need that prompting to do something with your kids alone, here it is. I’m gonna show you that we can do it, I’m gonna show you that it’s possible. You’re going with me on this trip and you’re gonna see that you can survive without your partner while caring for your kids away from home. I think. I hope.”
The non-default dad took his kids to the beach for a weekend away, documenting his solo parenting trip on TikTok.
Kellough uses tongue-in-cheek humor to showcase his role as the non-default parent, yet when it came time to give his wife a weekend alone, he was ready for the work that entailed.
“So, we’ve got a non-default parent taking the kids on a trip, and let me tell you, I packed everything,” he claimed. “Well, let me rephrase that. Everything we’re taking, I packed. Am I confident I packed everything? Absolutely not. It’s not something I feel great about, but it's my problem to figure out.”
He shared the progress of his trip with his kids, filming footage for his followers upon arriving at his destination.
“We made it to the beach,” Kellough said. “We did it. Here I am, being a great dad.”
“Can we talk about the audacity of my children?” he asked. “So after working my tail off to get them here by myself, the first thing they ask is, ‘Daddy, can you play with us?’ And I’m like, man, I got them here, what do I need to do?”
Kellough continued, stating, “Fortunately, my son, like, stole this grandma who was hanging out with her granddaughter and made her his own meemaw for the day, so he had a blast with her. Some other family taught my daughter how to boogie board.”
Kellough poked fun at his non-default parenting tactics, saying, 'If you look clueless enough, other better parents and grandparents will step in and help.'
He ended his post by showing himself hand-in-hand with his two children, running in and out of the waves, proving he’s not as useless of a parent as he claims to be.
The fact that Kellough talks openly about his default-parent status shows that he’s aware of the issue at hand, which is the imbalanced division of labor between parents in heterosexual families. The inequity of balancing household and parenting tasks has only increased in recent years with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The IZA-Institute of Labor Economics conducted a study in which the data collected showed that “the gender gap in household care-related activities was widest during the first wave of the pandemic, and although it was less pronounced during the second wave, it was still higher than pre-COVID-19.
The time spent by women on housework, childcare, and assisting their children with distance learning did not depend on their partners' working arrangements. Conversely, men spent fewer hours helping with the housework and distance learning when their partners were at home."
Yet Kellough’s journey with his kids proves that even non-default parents can step up and handle more responsibility, even if their execution isn’t perfect. Kellough’s kids were safe, cared for, and having fun, and at the end of the day, it seems that’s all a parent could hope for.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. As a former postpartum doula, she covers parenting issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.