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Comment by nimbius | Hacker News Reader

nonsense. I for one recall my fathers near clairvoyant ability to sense minute fluctuations in the ambient air temperature even before they were made. he focused this experience into a sound known only to a child's ears

'don't touch that damn thermostat'

his poetic aptitude for dad jokes was intense, dare I say profound. truly a mind of the ages.

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> 'don't touch that damn thermostat'

How is this playing out in higher-tech homes? Are kids overcoming parental technical aptitudes, or is this scaring kids off from fiddling with all things techy?

(I am dreading the day my kids will want to poke around in Hubitat [or whatever I am running at the time] and mess up my perfectly configured rules.)

I spent the first 30 or so years of my life living in places without thermostats. The fact that there's a level beyond that blows my mind.

If you do it nice you have the thermostat so you can twist or slide it and it goes up or down a degree (enough for the heat or AC to turn on) and then your program kicks in 30 later and resets it to where it was. Win-win.

Depends on how you back up your threats.

> and mess up my perfectly configured rules

Keep your rules in a repo somewhere, and the kids can't screw them up.

You could even have unsigned commits change the temperature in the opposite (or randomized) direction to discourage tampering.

>his poetic aptitude for dad jokes was intense, dare I say profound. truly a mind of the ages.

i was going to suggest the opposite as the lameness of dad jokes pretty much supports the premise.

Dad jokes are intentionally lame. They serve an important social function - they establish the dad as the "lowest" member of the social totem pole, which frees kids up to not sweat social status so much. They allow everyone to unite in solidarity about how lame dad is, instead of obsessing about being cool all the time.

I'm astounded at how well this explanation sounds. It's as if someone did a social study into dad jokes that was funded by the NSF with actual trained professionals.

I'm guessing this only applies in a heavily matriarchial society. If it was a patriarchial society, you'd be killed for lowering the status of the head of the family with such nonsense!

It wouldn't surprise me if someone else already figured it out, but I put it together after becoming a father myself and reading Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre

sounds kind of circular with the logic though, yeah?

Interesting take, based on my own life I would suggest the opposite: Dad is secure in his position and thus not vying for status. I enjoy saying silly stuff or teasing my kids. Not for any tactical or strategic reason just to have a chance to joke with them.

I expect if I was worried about social standing I would not say silly things. That I am "Dad" and cannot be fired means I am safe.

For example: I feel super proud when my daughter tells _me_ what I am saying is silly and she tells me why. So much of parenting is about us telling our kids things, what to do, or why something happens. Saying silly things invites the kids to tell us stuff with their own authority.

>Dad is secure in his position

"What are they going to do, fire me?"

knock, knock

"You've been served"

I like this explanation, it seems pretty plausible.

But then again, my 10 year old son does better dad jokes than I do. And it definitely hasn't made him the lowest member of our social totem pole.

Is a 10 year old making dad jokes or kid jokes? There's a fine line, I know, but wouldn't want to miscredit something

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