About That Dad Thing

It started with a video on Dah-YouTubes.

My daughter walked into my office one morning to show me something she'd found online. She loves Baby Trump and he was ribbing about retirement and dropped this gem: "I know a lot of retirement jokes… but none of them work."

She looked at me, smiled, and said — "That's totally a Dad thing."

Not a Baby Trump thing. Not a YouTube thing. A Dad thing. Specifically, her Dad thing. Me.

And honestly? It hit me right in the feels.

Because behind that one line was every school morning she spent streaming Pat Benatar and Fleetwood Mac — and yes, The Doors, even though I don't particularly like The Doors — just because it was the music I grew up with and I wanted to share it. It was years of eye rolls I wore like a badge of honor. It was every groan-worthy joke delivered with a completely straight face while the whole family suffered through it.

She didn't just get me. She loves me. I'm the one and only Dad she has, and she celebrates it.

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Dads Are Special — Even the Quirky Ones

Here's the thing about Dads — we're special. Quirky, sure. Occasionally embarrassing? Ask my kids. But that's exactly what makes us special. And this Dad? I've been told I'm very "special."

I've also been told, more times than I can count, that I'm very hard to buy for.

Which explains the Steelers memorabilia. Cleveland and Baltimore — don't knock it — it could be ties.

So what do you get the Dad who has everything?

Here's what I'll tell you, and I think most Dads will quietly agree: what we want most isn't a thing at all. It's moments like that one. A kid walking in just to share a joke because, somewhere along the way, you became their reference point for it.

We're more self-aware than we let on. We know the dad joke is corny. That's not a bug — that's the whole feature. It's an identity we don't carry lightly. The groan is a love language. The eye roll means it landed.

That's why I have a Dad Joke button. And Dad Joke cards. And Dad Joke books. Dad jokes don't write themselves, you know. It's a craft. It's a bond. It's a whole industry built on connection — one terrible pun at a time.

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How That Dad Thing Was Born

I kept turning that moment over in my head — That's totally a Dad thing — until I found myself on GoDaddy looking up ThatDadThing.com.

And just like that, TDT was born.

This place is for Dads. It's for the people who love them. It's for the daughter who knew exactly who she was talking about when she heard that joke. It's for the gift-givers who are tired of defaulting to Steelers memorabilia (no offense, #SteelersNationUnite).

Like raising my two wonderful kids alongside my beautiful, loving wife of 30 years — this is a labor of love. Every single part of it.

The bigger the eye roll, the better.