Fatherhood

There comes a time in every parent's life where connecting with their kids gets more difficult. In the early days, it's easy — be goofy, make them laugh, be a safe place for them to bring their tears. But when those little kids become teenagers and start having lives of their own, it gets harder to keep the closeness in your relationship.

One Wisconsin dad recently decided to meet his three teenage daughters on their turf: TikTok.

Matt Balthasar has three girls, ages 17, 15, and 12. Between busy sports and school schedules, he found he was getting less and less time with them. But they always seemed to have time to check in on their phones, scroll their social media feeds, and text with friends. So he decided to try a unique tactic to earn their attention and respect: Balthasar decided to become an influencer himself.

He asked his daughters for help setting up an account, but they refused, figuring there was no way he would follow through on it. So they were caught totally off guard on a travel basketball trip when he whipped out his phone and said, into the camera, what would become his signature catchphrase: "Hey, what's up guys?"

In one hilarious compilation, Balthasar stitches together his family's embarrassed reactions to the bit as he announces where they're at, what they're doing, and promises to get back to his followers "soon" with a review. The only problem... he had no followers. At least, at first.

What started as a joke quickly spiraled into something much bigger: Viral gold.

Balthasar filmed a quick update for his non-existent followers as he and the family were out to dinner one night:

"Hey, what's up guys? We're here at Mallard's. Just trying out some of this food. We'll get back to you guys."

He then asks his daughter, Carrington, if she has anything to add. All she can do is hide her face in shame.

The video went on to rack up over 3 million views, and suddenly, Balthasar found himself in a weird situation: He was actually an influencer. His most popular video, a short "review" of a Mexican restaurant that features a killer "6-7" joke, has nearly 5 million views.

Commenters loved Balthasar's unapologetic Dad Energy and encouraged him not to let his daughters' (and his wife's) annoyed reactions get him down:

"Don’t let them dim your spark king"

"Don’t stop making these, I love the content Unc"

"They dont deserve you king"

"They hate you cause thy ain't you"

Others added that, jokes aside, Balthasar seemed like a great, funny, and engaged dad; and that his daughters would one day be extremely thankful that they had him in their lives.

Though they don't seem to love the sneak attack influencer videos, they seem well aware that they've got a good one. The girls told Fox6 how much they appreciated him:

"I love my dad," said Kinsley.

"He's just really nice. He's really a great dad," said Keegan.

"Like, we have complete, different schedules, but the fact we’re able to have time together and spend it well and have fun, is super important," said Carrington.

Balthasar admits in interviews that he doesn't fully understand the social media landscape and all the terminology that gets thrown around there (he had to ask his girls what an 'unc' was, for example). But besides the laughs and the viral fame, he's learning a lot about the world his daughters are growing up in. And however long this bit lasts—and knowing dads, it's bound to go on for a while—the memories the family gets out of this will be well worth all the stink eyes and covered faces one day.