So, You Think You Can Parent: Twitter Users’ Responses to Single Father Tropes in Television’s Single Parents

Abstract

As the U.S. single-father population expands, we explore how fans of Single Parents (ABC, 2018–2020) responded to its three single-father characters, each of whom evoke a distinct trope. Viewers use Twitter to engage television programs, and so their tweets provide insight into societal expectations surrounding evolving gendered parenting norms. Using qualitative content analysis, we analyze viewers’ tweets (N = 834) and explore the ways viewers addressed these characters’ relationships with children, with their fellow single parents, and with romantic partners. Fans celebrated the new millennial approach to fatherhood and challenged the traditional trope of “inept father,” yet hoped the single fathers would re-couple and therefore cease to be single parents. We conclude that Single Parents fans embraced modern, expanding cultural norms for fathers and caregiving while ultimately demonstrating a preference for two-parent households.