Parenting

Dads Are Competing To See Who Can Stack The Most Cheerios On Their Babies

by Mike Julianelle
Updated: 
Originally Published: 

Just in time for Father’s Day, a group of dads have found a way to make boring babies fun

Babies are cute and all, but they’re boring as hell. They don’t do anything, and most of the stuff they do do (no pun intended except it was totally intended) is annoying. We love them and all, but let’s be serious: they don’t bring a lot to the table. Their entertainment value is limited. There are only so many times you can get excited about a vacant smile, am I right?

So thank God for Life of Dad and the viral sensation they’ve launched, in which dads across the country are attempting to outdo each other by seeing how many Cheerios they can stack on their sleeping babies faces.

It all started when Patrick Quinn of Life of Dad – a social media site for parents, with a dad’s perspective – posted a picture of his sleeping baby with a stack of five Cheerios on his head. He then challenged the internet to top him.

We reached out to Patrick, one of Life of Dad’s Co-Founders, and he confirmed the boring baby thesis.

“This whole thing started out of pure boredom. I was just stuck on a couch with a sleeping infant, and my older son had left a bowl of Cheerios behind. I put one on Maxton’s nose and then another and the higher it got, the funnier it became…”

He tells Scary Mommy, “It was about a week later that I decided to turn it into a challenge and posted it to Life of Dad as a meme. [Five is] as high as I got it… I assumed nobody would ever be able to get higher than that! I didn’t anticipate the level of virility.

Nobody does. (Except maybe the Holdernesses?) We asked why he thinks the Cheerios-stacking challenge blew up. He says, “Basically the challenge just cuts through all socioeconomic levels and cultural and racial divides to show that as parents we all really just want to stack cereal on our children’s faces.”

That’s 100% true. As proven by the many, many photo submissions.This guy totally topped five.

This guy took it up a notch:

Yeah, I wouldn’t be able to keep from laughing either.

More power to these dads for finding a way to spice up life with an infant.

I have a five-month-old and he does four things: smiles, cries, eats, and poops. I love the little guy, but let’s move this along already! I know, I know, be careful what you wish for – I also have a five-year-old and the baby is a LOT easier to deal with. But the five-year-old at least gives me something to work with. We watch movies together, we play catch, we have conversations. The baby? He’s a brick wall. He’s an accessory. He’s boring. But not anymore. Thanks, Life of Dad!

It makes sense that this took off on Father’s Day weekend, because it’s definitely a dad thing to do. Moms would never jeopardize their children by placing dried cereal on their precious noggins! Actually, there hasn’t been any outrage yet, which is a relief, because who isn’t sick of the parental judgment that has overwhelmed social media the past few weeks? This is simply a fun, harmless diversion.

Harmless, that is, until you wake the baby up. It’s all fun and games until your kid stops sleeping and starts crying. Then the joke’s on Dad.

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