We asked members of the BuzzFeed Community about the weird hobbies their dads have. Here are their charmingly strange responses:
1. This linen stan:
"My dad's thing is making beds. He'll fold all the blankets and arrange the stuffed animals; my bed always looks like catalog quality when he's done. My family has accepted that making the beds is dad's thing and we just stay out of his way on sheet-changing days." —ohheyglasses
2. This channel surfer:
"Mine is obsessed with World Surf League. Whenever a competition happens he will be watching, even if we are at a restaurant. I still remember the time he barged into my room screaming about how Mick Fanning got attacked by a shark during the J-Bay Open."
3. This unwrapping addict:
"My dad watches MRE/military ration unboxing videos from around the world all. Day. Long. He's started to order his own on eBay, and he calls to tell me what's in them."
—l4cc479c84
4. This soul cycler:
"My dad is obsessed with an online biking community called Zwift. He hooks up his stationary bike to a computer and can see an avatar of himself ride a bike and race other real-life bikers. He's so obsessed that he bought and installed a green screen in our basement. He also bought a state of the art microphone to instruct other riders, and a jersey with his online team name on it."
—otm1208
5. This daring pilot:
"My dad took up aerobatic flying about 30 years ago. He's 70 this week. The other day my son and I were driving down the road and we saw him doing a completely vertical nose dive over our family property. I literally pulled over to the side of the road to wait for him to pull out of it. Nerve wrecking."
6. This tender mechanic:
"My dad collects and repairs Hot Wheels. He'd also refurbishes them, and he bought stencils and a kit to airbrush little designs. He has his own little space with all his Hot Wheels and everything."
7. This passionate mower:
"My dad's favorite hobby is working on lawn mowers. Have you ever listened to a man explain the minutiae of a lawn mower and expound on the benefits of this tire/shaft/engine versus that one or how to properly balance your weights for optimum pulling power?"
8. This colorful comedian:
"My dad is a clown. Like he's straight up circus clown in his spare time. He makes balloon animals and has trading cards; it's mildly horrifying. But he does it because my grandmother loved clowns, so I guess it's sweet in a way?" —meganleighblackstonew
9. This decorative forger:
"Blacksmithing!! He has a few forges in our workshop and he makes all sorts of cool decorative things like crosses, curtain rods, candleholders, etc."
—kellyd20
10. This spicy aficionado:
11. This student of the YouTubes:
"When my dad first figured out what YouTube was, he watched a video about to make those animals towels they sometimes have at hotels. He was so excited he put them everywhere — swan on the bed, elephant on the bathroom counter, even a monkey hanging from the shower curtain. My siblings and I cracked up at how proud he was of himself."
—youngnj22
12. This dedicated collector:
"My dad has a lifelong goal of finding the perfect slinky. We probably have around 20 slinkies in our house right now, none of which have made it all the way down the stairs."
13. This very handy sir:
"My dad uses old car parts and makes them into lamps." —katw46e15b743
14. This catfisher:
"My dad is retired and his hobby is raising catfish. He really loves them, and one time when he was away for the week he called me to make sure that I feed them. It's almost like he loves his catfish more than he loves me. The weird thing is at the end of every month, he always catches them and grills them."
15. This jazzy puzzler:
"My father likes taking up our entire dining room table to assemble 5000-piece puzzles, but he won't do it unless Frank Sinatra music is playing. Like he'll completely ignore the presence of this giant puzzle until someone puts on Frank Sinatra."
16. This master of macabre:
"My dad is a huge fan of cemeteries and graves. He has visited the gravesite of every deceased president, and he goes to the death sites of famous people to take pictures for photo albums. He also takes pictures of our relatives' graves and catalogues them on a grave finding website with fun facts."
17. This penny papa:
"My dad collects pennies. We'll be checking out at the grocery store and as we're receiving our change, he'll lean over the cash register to pick out which pennies he wants. He does it so often that whenever we go somewhere, people will recognize him and just hold out a handful of pennies for him to choose."
18. This classic dude:
"My dad loves collecting vintage Hawaiian shirts. They can ONLY be made in Hawaii or he gets offended. As a kid I always liked going to the thrift store and looking through racks of men's shirts trying to find him new items to add to his collection. His collection took up two whole closets!"
—maerenaldo
19. This generous baker:
20. This high flyer:
"My dad and I both fly stunt kites. They have four strings and you can do all sorts of trick with them. We just recently moved and found the local kite club, so hopefully we can start competing together soon. But seriously — weird-ass kites are his hobby."
—momentumjump
21. This mini house hunter:
"My dad is moderately obsessed with tiny houses. He records all the tiny house hunter shows on HGTV, talks about which ones he would get and how he would decorate it, and low-key wants to build one in our backyard. I swear, it's his dream as a grown man who's saved up enough to retire comfortably."
—m4da965138
22. This fancy brewer:
"My dad makes random wines out of the fruit he grows, mainly kumquats. He doesn't even drink."
23. This writing nerd:
"My dad is super into pens...like SUPER into pens. He listens to podcasts about pens, he collects pens, and we can't go into a store without him wanting to go look at the pens. He also knows so much about calligraphy, except he doesn't actually know how to do it."
—macemaster
24. This chicken father:
"He breeds Orpington chickens. It started by just a few chickens in a small coop in our backyard and ended with two large incubators in our basement and four big coops with about 100 animals. He takes the most beautiful chickens to nationwide prize shows and orders eggs online from other breeders. Crazy guy."
—kaa
25. This gourdener:
"My best friends dad is obsessed with gourds. Every time someone comes over he takes them to see his 'gourden' and he always gives me one whenever I go over. He's the sweetest and it makes me laugh."
26. And this tender florist:
"My dad is an orchid doctor by hobby. It happened so randomly. I thought I killed my orchid, but when I brought it to him and he brought it back. Now he has over 20 orchids because people bring them to him when they're on their last legs. He nurses them and they bloom again. His orchids are purely his and he is a rockstar with them."
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Note: submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.
