Father’s Day, Millennial Style: The Kitchen Is the New Garage
Car culture and the "Mr. Fixit" ideal feel like Reagan-era relics with macho baggage. Give modern dads Le Creuset, not a Crescent wrench.
Dads of yore wouldn’t dare to dream of a creation like the Thermomix.
Source: Hulton Archive/Getty Images
With Father's Day on the horizon, I, like many newish fathers around my age, have been asked what I would like this year. Being relatively new at being on the receiving end of this holiday, I think back to how Father's Day was marketed when I was a kid. The popular gifts were things like neckties and tool belts that you'd buy at Sears. It all feels like something out of the Reagan era.
As lifestyles have changed, with young people living in cities later in life and delaying homeownership, and as gender roles have shifted, the "cars and tools" aesthetic isn't as popular with young fathers as it used to be. The food and cooking aesthetic has become more of a status symbol, thanks in part to social media. For millennial dads, the kitchen has become the new garage. Father's Day marketing should shift accordingly.