To be in awe at what a show off this dad was

[Driveamazdashopatasda]

I'm just back from taking my youngest to the paddling pool/splash park at the leisure centre. It's for under eights, so the morning session is full of the usual assortment of parents with babies and toddlers

This very muscled, tattooed dad was there with his toddler son. He was definitely performance parenting, chucking the child around, hooraying all over the place, and quite obviously looking round to check that everyone else was watching him. He was being a bit of a pain, to be honest, perching on top of the giant mushroom spouting water thing, jumping off, making huge waves which caused a mini tsunami to hit the babies in their floaty things, that sort of nonsense. I could see a few of the other mums rolling their eyes. The pool is not huge and is really not the place for that sort of bouncing around.

Imagine our surprise when this idiot then dropped to the ground in the shallowest end of the splash pool and started doing press ups complete with loud grunting and hand claps, and yells of "come on, Child's Name! Time me, time me! Huh! Huh! Huh!" I think he got to about twenty

Child in question was sitting under a stream of water looking utterly baffled.

Everyone was like this

Bloody press ups in the paddling pool!

😂😂😂 that would have been worth seeing 😂😂😂

Oh, his poor kid! Growing up with that plonker for a father.

But so much fun for the rest of us .

I always wonder what these Performance Parents are hoping to get from this. I mean, showing off to strangers isn't actually of any benefit to anyone unless they think a secret social worker is going to pop up and give them a cheque.

I have a relative who is a relentless performer. Even though her kids are nearly teenagers now she spent Christmas Day cavorting around with empty boxes making a den then very very loudly playing hide and seek with her bored looking children. The rest of us had to listen, while drinking prosecco. She carried on for hours, even when the children had lost interest. The look in her eyes was desperate.

Push ups in the water? Even I can do that, and I need two hands to lift my cup of tea

🤣😂🤣😂
I wonder if that poor child was thinking the equivalent of WTF!...my late mother had this wonderful gift of not being able to hold back a laugh and she certainly would have had a field day with this guy.

@squeaver , shall I check insta and find out? I can report back on the poorly written caption.

I used to work with someone like this. What a twat he was.

You don't live in Mansfield do you?

Didn't you just die laughing?!

Fantastic.

Probably married to the effort at my daughter's school who warms up for a run every morning whilst waiting for her daughter to go in. She loudly tells her daughter how much further or faster she will go today whilst stretching and do these little "hup hup" noises with jumps ... andloudly askswon't darling daughter be so proud etc. Something in her daughter's face tells me she'll be in therapy discussing that.

I have nothing to add, was just checking to see if it was my ex that had been spotted in the wild

It was genuinely one of the funniest things I've ever seen. You had to be there. Part of the beauty of it was the build up, where everyone slowly realised what a dick he was, before being united in horrified delight at the finale.

He was indeed doing the pushups actually in the water. If you imagine the pool being a sort of oval, with one end fairly clear of garish water spouting equipment, only about five inches deep - that's where he was

His child could not time him, I'm pretty sure his child had only just learnt to walk! He plonked the child down in front of him before dropping into the exercise regime...

This is hilarious

Perhaps he was single and hoping to find a new step mum for his child? Like a peacock showing his feathers this literally made me lol

Ah, this is priceless - thanks for sharing OP.

There is one dad in our 'baby swimming' (baby piss about in the water) class who is a less extreme version of this. He is very muscly and tanned (in, I think, a sunbed way) and parades around before the class. But then his wife sits on the side barking constant instructions at him - 'hold her head higher up! Babe! Her head!', which undermines his Big I Am act a bit.

I fear I would have pointed and laughed. What a wanker.

foreverhanging I snorted at that image. Although I just remembered my own Dad did those push ups where you clap while having DBro or myself lying on his back as an extra weight. I have no idea why and I'd blocked it out until reading these.

Have you checked Instagram or YouTube? Studmuffin's missus may have been videoing it in the viewing area.

We had a peacock strutting about at the school fair. This parent was making a real show about balancing on one of those rubber band tightropes. Usually, they tend to have quite a bit of give but that one was quite taught and less than a metre of the ground. Yet, if you looked at him, you would have thought he was precariously balancing high up in the air between two sky scrapers. Then he slipped and this tight rubber band hit him right into his crown jewels, after which he dropped on his side to the ground like a sack of potatoes. I had no idea that my cackle could be heard over the entire schoolground but it seemed to set off quite a few other giggles. My DH swears he could hear me on the other side of the building.

“Even though her kids are nearly teenagers now she spent Christmas Day cavorting around with empty boxes making a den then very very loudly playing hide and seek with her bored looking children. The rest of us had to listen, while drinking prosecco. She carried on for hours, even when the children had lost interest. The look in her eyes was desperate.”

😂😂😂

Oh this is hilarious. What a knob! And absolutely no idea that nobody was impressed. I wonder what he thought as he was driving home? That he'd given all the mums a lovely show? Tit!

I was so hoping you would say the child was too young to time (or count if they've only just started walking!)

I would have said something. I couldn't have held it in.

You have just made my day OP

Used to quite enjoy the stretching and sly trainer swapping that went on prior to the Dad’s race each year at the DD’s primary school - usually new to the school parents, because everyone else knew that the modest, skinny guy, strolling up to the start line in casual clothes was a former international athlete who was at the end in a few bounds whilst the others were just starting.

Are you going again next time? Hopefully he'll do something equally ridiculous again!

Get your phone out, one for Youtube or something.