Man who grew up without father launches ‘Dad, how do I?’ YouTube channel to help others in similar situation

HOUSTON – Rob Kenney was abandoned by his father at 14 years old. Now, flipping his life experience, Kenney has become the internet’s dad, offering weekly tutorial videos of basic tasks to help those who don’t have a parent to learn from.

Kenney launched his YouTube channel titled “Dad, how do I?" and uploaded his first video “How to tie a tie” on April 2.

“I will do my best to provide useful, practical content to many basic tasks that everyone should know how to do," he wrote on the About page of his channel.

In less than two months, the channel has garnered nearly 2 million subscribers.

On May 19, one viewer shared a tweet calling Kenney’s videos “the purest thing,” helping the channel rapidly grow.

“I never wanted to be wealthy. I never wanted to be necessarily successful,” Kenney told Shattered Magazine in an interview. “My goal in life was to raise good adults—not good children but good adults — because I had a fractured childhood.”

According to the interview, Kenney said he always wanted to make a series of videos detailing important lessons often not taught in high school. However, he could never find the time.

“I had lots of excuses, but while we’re in quarantine, I ran out of excuses,” he said.

So far, Kenney has uploaded videos teaching viewers a range of tasks such as how to change a tire, iron a dress shirt, unclog a bathtub drain and more.

His most popular video to date is “How to fix most running toilets,” which has more than 700,000 views.

In his latest video, Kenney said he is overwhelmed by the growth of his audience and appreciates every comment on his videos that read “protect this man at all costs."

Kenney uploads a new “How to” video every Thursday and said he plans to start a “Tool Tuesday” series on May 26.