Three Ways The Andy Griffith Show Taught Me How Not to Be a Dad
I was up but everyone else was in bed this Saturday morning and, to kill time, I wound up watching some re-runs of The Andy Griffith Show . While Andy Taylor (Griffith) is arguably one of the best TV dads off all time, I realized he does have some bad parenting habits that, as a dad myself, I would be reluctant to imitate. Here are the three big ones: Taking parent advice from non-parents. Specifically, he seems to value advice from his unmarried and childless deputy Barney Fife ( Don Knotts ). Not only does Barney have zero first-hand experience raising a child, he has never even proven to be wise about everyday things in general. He'd the last person I'd ask advice from, especially when it came to any of my children. Letting his son wander alone and talk to strangers. OK, so obviously this show takes place in a different era when that probably wasn't as frowned upon as it is today. And, to be fair, Mayberry was mostly crime free, other than maybe the way people sometimes...