“What Is Wrong With Men of His Generation?” — Man Says Father Never Once Asked Him About His Life

A TikToker named Nick (@nicksnotasleep) questioned his father's lack of emotional closeness. He mournfully confides in a viral clip that despite spending a lot of time together, his dad never asks him personal questions, making it clear that he has zero interest in learning about his son as a person.

"So I'm driving my dad home from one of his doctor's appointments," Nick says at the top of the video while driving in his car. He continues, "And, you know we're talking about whatever, places, things, go here, whatever."

The TikToker, who looks like something was bothering him at the top of his video decided to broach a subject that seemed to have been on his mind for quite some time. And that's his father's reluctance to ever engage in personal conversations with his son.

According to Nick, his father never asks him anything that's specific or particular to him.

"Finally gets to the point where I'm like, you know Dad, you don't ask me anything about myself. You don't ask me what books I'm reading, cause you see me with a book every day. You don't ask me about my music. You don't ask me about how I'm feeling or what I'm thinking, you don't ask me about anything."

Nick said that his father's reasoning for not engaging in heart-to-hearts with him, or at least attempting to get to know him better, felt like a lame excuse. Especially since they've spent time together on a daily basis for the last two years.

"And he says, 'Well, I've had a lot going on.' And I'm not talking about like, oh you didn't ask me today. You know, I've been with him more or less every day for the last two years. So it's not like oh, just this week."

Nick said that his dad, instead of using it as an opportunity to try and talk further with his son or make matters better, elected to just be quiet for the rest of their ride together. "And so then what does he do? We sit in silence for the next 20 minutes," he said.

The video then quickly cuts to Nick throwing up his hands in defeat. There seems to be a look of resignation and sadness on his face as he speaks about his interaction with his dad. "I don't know what the f--k is wrong with men of his generation," he asks.

"Like, no, nothing going on up here," he points to his head, then brings his finger down over his heart. "Or in here."

Judging by the responses of other people in the comments section of Nick's video, it unfortunately appears that others have also had similar experiences with their own folks.

One person agreed with Nick's presumption that this was a generational trait and said that their own mother engages in this type of behavior. "My mom said, 'I never knew to do that.' Then she immediately starts talking about herself. It’s just that entire generation," one person wrote.

Someone else replied that folks in Nick's father's generation simply weren't trained to have the type of manners the TikToker hoped his dad would embody: "They were programmed to not be in touch with feelings at all."

Others had simpler explanations, like one person who said it boiled down to some parents really just not liking their children. "They don’t actually like us," they wrote.

Someone else wrote that this was a case of people procreating when they otherwise shouldn't be.

"Unfortunately, many of us have had parents who just shouldn’t have had children. They would have been much happier without them," another remarked.

In a Reddit post uploaded to the site's r/childfree sub (which, admittedly probably consists of a very biased subset of individuals), folks who discussed the idea of parental regret speculated that the figure was probably much higher than most admit.

Indeed, during the baby boomer generation, it's true that many folks were expected to get married, have a family, and live out the prototypical American Dream.

It could be that this pressure ended up influencing a ton of people who may not have been all that excited at the prospect of having children just giving into social expectations.