When we get stuck with a problem, all we need is a little push to get us going. One of the best people to help us with our quandaries is our dads. It doesn’t matter if you’re close or not, you’d be surprised that your dad’s going to spout the most golden advice that you need in your life when it matters most.
Here are 70 of the best pieces of dad-vice that people have shared on the internet:
1. I’m not going to do that
Is this a dad joke disguised as advice or advice disguised as a dad joke? We’ll never know, but he loved to say it.
Well, that’s not technically what that means, and I don’t know if the cruise line would accept it. But realistically, who else is going to be coming to help you out at sea? Dad is thinking practically.
At least Dad isn’t concerned about his son marrying a divorced woman. He doesn’t care about baggage — in fact, he thinks it comes with quite a few perks. Talk about putting a positive spin on things.
This piece of advice is pretty extreme. It’s definitely on a level above “He’ll put coal in your stocking.” New theory: Santa gets the coal from the houses he burns down.
Dads have a way of giving important life lessons in the weirdest and most awkward ways possible. I won’t deny these lessons are true, but I also don’t want to think about them too much.
Forget your MLM cure-all essential oils, Karen. This dad knows exactly which oils are essential to his needs, and they don’t include eucalyptus, sage, or lavender.
In this dad’s defense, that’s the first rule of getting poison ivy or poison oak. But he left out quite a few more helpful solutions…like calamine lotion.
A better lesson might be to avoid going around naked under a bathrobe, but we’ll give it to him. It could save you a lot of future embarrassment — and it seems as though Dad is speaking from experience.
I feel like a good middle ground here would be to eat in moderation or wear sweatpants, but that wasn’t good enough for Dad. This begs the question: exactly how much was he eating?
We’ll never know the reasoning behind this father’s strange hatred of apples. Apparently, they’re the fruit of the common rabble and he considers himself above all that.
In drivers’ ed, they teach you about defensive driving. But what they don’t teach you is “creative” driving. Oh, wait, yes, they do — in the lesson about accidents and speeding offenses.
Either this dad was hoping to make his daughter smart by osmosis, thereby saving on college expenses, or he was hoping she’d marry a rich guy. Either way, you can’t fault him for thinking outside of the box.
Starting a new job can be nerve-wracking. Luckily, Dad supplied a vote of confidence. Or rather, he made his child doubt their intelligence for the rest of their life.
Some kids aren’t naturally inclined to sports. Regardless, parents should support them. It seems sports ability wasn’t important to Jimmy Fallon’s dad. He just wanted to go home.
I don’t know how to start unpacking this one. Frankly, I have a few questions about how this advice was born. What prompted this pearl of wisdom — or do I even want to know?
If you’ve ever been to college, you know there are two things universal for students: they’re always hungry and rarely have money. In college, you take whatever free food you can find.
Older people often have an odd fixation of having their privacy violated. They’re very protective of their rights. But not using your turn signal is taking it way too far.
Scaremongering isn’t always the best way to get through to kids, but you can’t deny this leaves an impression. Seriously, people — just buckle your seatbelt.
I want to know if he gave any other context to this advice. I’m assuming his warning of “not to be the drunkest” was to save some embarrassment. Alas, we’ll never know the whole story.
This was spoken by a dad who didn’t brush his teeth often enough and had to pay for an absurd amount of dental care. At least, that’s what I’m assuming. You don’t forget those harsh life lessons.
When we were young, our fathers told us to speak to our mothers with respect. But with the changing of technology, the advice from our parents has to change, too. One day we’ll be saying, “Don’t make fun of your mom on the holograph.”
Some people just have “That Face,” the one that makes people tell them about their problems. Dad’s all about taking opportunities that present themselves. And we can’t exactly blame him.
Sure, it’s important to start a savings account. But ultimately, your money has to go somewhere. After all, you won’t be taking it with you at the end of your life.
You should never swerve to avoid hitting an animal — at least not a small one, like a squirrel. But I get the feeling Dad got himself mixed up between trees and people.
In general, it’s a good idea to avoid smoking — even though not everyone who smokes gets cancer. But this dad’s ideas of responsible consumption might be a little bit off-base.
Babyproofing is a never-ending task, and some kids seem determined to find every tiny object in the house. Where did they find that little screw? You’ll never know.
Our parents raised us to think that random strangers would offer us drugs in dark alleyways. The reality is no one does that because, as he says, drugs are expensive.
This is yet another one of those pieces of advice that must’ve come from real-world experience. I feel as though it shouldn’t need to be said, but that’s where we are.
Siblings fight about the strangest things, including flatulence. But parents don’t usually encourage them to blame their farts on one another. How about just saying “Excuse me?”
It’s just like a dad to compare love to bodily functions. But, like most fatherly advice, even though it’s disgusting, there’s also got an element of truth to it.
Something tells me this father-in-law had a bad experience with expensive chicken. Either that or he’s a cheapskate and takes unregulated chicken prices very personally.
The way Dad worded this advice makes me think he was tired of listening to his kids’ complain. He’d rather they murder than subject him to those annoying people by proxy.
Plenty of dads have some version of this, maybe “rub some dirt on it” or “walk it off.” It’s all the same way of saying: “You’re going to get over it because I don’t want to take you to the hospital.”
Beer does tend to go through your system much faster than most alcohol. But I’m not sure what Dad’s trying to say here — maybe “Go to the bathroom before you get in the car”?
The biggest problem with this “solution” — besides the fact that it doesn’t satisfy thirst — is that you produce less saliva as you get more dehydrated. Dad needs to read a science book before doing that victory dance.
Something tells me that Dad thought long and hard about the way he wanted to give this advice. He settled for a particularly elegant way and seemed pretty proud of it.
Why do I get the feeling Dad is still bitter about that $200 he lost to the neighbor Tim back in 2003? Sometimes, dad advice comes from a dark past. You might want to ask some questions.