Dad Says He Could 'Do Anything' In The World Except Be A Mom Because He Can't Wake Up In The Middle Of The Night Or Change Diapers
It's not called "being a mom," it's being a parent and it would be a lot easier on moms if responsibilities were shared.
TikTok A dad proudly claimed he doesn’t do any parenting in a podcast interview, making all moms everywhere shudder with disgust.
Zach Nichols and Jenna Compono, a husband and wife duo who met on MTV’s Real World Challenge, joined GOHT Media for a podcast interview that had some questionable outcomes.
The dad says he could 'do anything' in the world except 'be a mom.'
Nichols continued, saying, “That is one of the hardest jobs in the world, and I am very lucky that I don’t have to wake up at night to do anything.”
“If she’s home, I’m not changing poopy diapers, unless I’m in a really good mood, or there’s two at the same time. If there’s two poopy diapers at the same time, I will do the male poopy diaper, because I know the plumbing better.”
The interviewer asked Jenna to verify her husband’s statement, to which she replied, “Oh yeah, absolutely,” while smiling. “He’ll let me know when they went to the bathroom, though. He’ll be like, ‘Oh man, he stinks.’ So I’m like, waiting, maybe Zach will change him, he’s like, ‘He really stinks.’”
Nichols laughed at her description of his weaponized incompetence and even agreed with what she was saying. “Like, this diaper is disgusting, you might want to get to this one sooner than later,” he continued. Nichols told his own truth when he said, “Dude, I’m the worst,” and laughed.
People who watched the interview believe that Nichols is part of the marriage inequality problem.
“That’s why more women are now getting [divorced] than ever before, tired of taking care of everything because a man doesn’t want to,” stated the top comment. “The bar is so low, it’s on the ground at this point,” said someone else. A third pointed out “Weaponized incompetence.”
Nichols and Compono have two children together, a daughter, Liliana Marie, who was born in December 2022, and a son, Anthony Joseph, who was born in September 2021, though it would appear to an outsider that Compono is deep in the married-single mom territory.
It wasn’t just podcast listeners who believed Nichols’ lack of parenting was nothing to be proud of. Educator, advocate, and author Laura Danger posted a reaction video of the interview to her own TikTok account, in which she simplified what Nichols was saying.
“The fact that this guy is not only not embarrassed, but said this with his whole chest,” Danger explained, before cutting to footage of Nichols saying he can do anything but be a mom.
“Don’t worry, I’m gonna fix it real quick,” Danger said, overlaying her own take on Nichols’ commentary. “You couldn’t be a parent.” She agreed that parenting is one of the hardest jobs in the world, “especially when you procreate with a dingbat.”
Danger stitched Nichols’ own words together, collapsing them down to make the claim, “I couldn’t be a parent because I’m the worst.”
Danger put 'weaponized incompetence' in a hashtag for the video, claiming that's what Nichols is representing.
Child care website Care.com defined weaponized incompetence as “when an individual pretends that they can’t perform a simple action so someone will do it for them.” They also point out that it has been referred to in the past as "strategic incompetence," "skilled incompetence," or straight-up "faking incompetence."
Some signs of weaponized incompetence were, "Claiming not to know how to perform basic chores, avoiding or refusing to learn how to do child care tasks, shirking responsibility for joint finances, lack of involvement in planning, scheduling, and activities, or avoiding responsibility for grocery shopping or meal prep.
They've also published several ways for partners to "curb" weaponized incompetence from happening in their relationships, which include calling out the problematic behavior, communicating about the cause, and working it out together.
While those are all solid suggestions, it appears easier said than done, especially in a partnership where the labor isn’t equally divided, and the other person doesn’t want to change their behavior.
Nichols is right about one thing — parenting is hard. But it’s even harder when you’re parenting with a partner who refuses to pull their own weight.
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.