Bill Maher Calls for ‘Trad Dad’ Revival, Knocks ‘Gentle Parenting’ in Father’s Day Message

TV personality Bill Maher speaks onstage at PETA's 35th Anniversary Party at Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles, California, on Sep. 30, 2015. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for PETA)

Television host Bill Maher used this Father’s Day weekend to call for the resurgence of the “trad dad” amid the rise of the “gentle parenting” style of raising children.

In Friday’s “New Rules” segment on “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the comedian began by urging his audience to let fathers exercise their role like fathers of the past.

“New Rule: This Father’s Day, if you really want to give your father something he’ll treasure forever, give him permission to be a dad like dads used to be.”

Maher acknowledged that he is not a parent, but he observes other children in public and is displeased with their behavior.

“So, no, I don’t have kids, but I sit next to yours at restaurants.”

“I’ve seen a seven-year-old ram a shopping cart into someone’s coccyx and the parent just shrugs and gives a look like ‘Kids. What are you gonna do?’ Raise them right. That’s what you can do.”

Gentle Parenting

The host said the issue of parents “overindulging” their children is not new and recalled discussions about recent trends in parenting, which have given way to the current “gentle parenting.”

“For as long as I’ve had a television show, the issue of parents overindulging their children has been a topic of discussion. So, it’s not like it’s new, but it hasn’t gotten better either,” he said.

“We were talking about ‘trophy syndrome’ in 1993, and then it was ‘helicopter parenting,’ and then ‘bulldozer parenting.’ And now we have ‘gentle parenting’ or, as it used to be known, ‘negotiating with terrorists,’” he continued.

Maher cited this quote from British author Sarah Ockwell-Smith: “The key here really is thinking, ‘Would I like it if someone did this to me?’ If the answer is ‘no,’ then why would you do it to your child?”

Maher response was, “Because they’re a child?”

“Would I like it if someone stripped me naked and plopped me down in a tub of water? No, but with a kid, that’s just bathtime,” he said.

The comedian compared gentle parenting to a “Taco Bell breakfast,” saying that if it feels wrong, it’s because it is wrong.

“Parents, it’s ruining your lives because you’ve made yourselves a butler to a five-year-old. And the kids, because the results are in, and all this ‘letting kids run the show, path of least resistance, child rearing,’ is harming them,” he said.

Maher cited a survey showing that about one in five recent college graduates bring their parents to interviews. He also said that today’s “average high school kid” has anxiety levels like “the average psychiatric patient in the early 1950s.”

“Our kids are crippled with anxiety because they haven’t been properly prepared for a world that doesn’t revolve around them,” he responded.

“Almost 10 percent of college students claim to have PTSD. From college? The cradle of safety-ism? The home of safe spaces and trigger warnings and policing offensive words? You’re not supposed to get PTSD in college. You’re supposed to get an STD!” he continued.

Maher also claimed that the National Institutes of Health contribute to the problem of mental health disorders among adolescents.

“The National Institutes of Health says that roughly half of teenagers now have a mental health disorder at some point in their lives. Which tells me one thing: The National Institutes of Health is also part of the problem,” he said

“The mental health disorder is on the part of the adults, not the children, the adults, who forgot that to a child, discipline is love, and that kids need structure and authority,” he continued. “Of course they think they have traumatic stress disorder when they get to college if, before they left the house, they never heard the word, ‘No’.”

The ‘Trad Dad’ Comeback

The television host then said the “trad dad,” or “traditional father,” needs to make a comeback.

“Not all the way back to the 1950’s psychopath who never said he loved you and hit you with a belt, no,” he said. “But just back to the dad who believes that ‘Because I said so’ is a perfectly legitimate answer to any question a child may have.”

“Mostly, a trad dad knows he’s your parent, not your friend,” he continued. “He isn’t your emotional support animal. He’s simply a guy who understands the job to raise an adult who can survive in the wild.”

Maher claims that, in the absence of traditional fathers, adolescent boys look to “meathead misogynist influencers” and named social media personality Andrew Tate as an example.

“Ever heard of him? Well your kid has,” he said. “He’s popular with teenage boys because when we don’t give them a masculine male role model they look up to, they go out and find one. And being teenage boys, of course it’s going to be the worst possible one.”

He concludes his segment by saying, “So this Father’s Day, let’s give dear old dad the gift of being ‘dear old dad.’ And, also, shut up. He’s trying to watch the game.”