Dad takes son to a nail salon to challenge stereotypes and the internet is all for it

Raising a kid is not a cakewalk. It requires meticulous effort and dedication along with strategic planning. Along with inculcating the right habits, it's also very important for parents to make memories that are going to be their kid's core memories when they grow up. In today's digital age, many parents are making it easy for others by documenting their entire parenting journey. Such is the story of a father named De'Brence McClain (@onlydebrence) who puts in time and effort and records his parenting journey to post on Instagram. 

In one of his recent videos, the father is seen filming himself taking his son, Boris who is only 4-years-old to a nail salon for their routine maintenance appointment. The video showcases the father-son duo getting a paper session at their favorite salon. He explains that the two of them also take classes like Muy Thai and jiu-jitsu which require them to take care of their hands very often. This is why, they like prioritizing their hands and feet so that they don't injure anybody else or themselves. "We actually gotta do this all the time, we have to keep up with our maintenance. We are fighters," he says. In the video, it can be seen that while the father was getting his nails cut, the 4-year-old can be seen sitting beside him and playing games on his phone with a nail tech, "He is chilling, he is having fun playing Minecraft right now," the father says.

In the video the father also talks about the importance of pampering yourself, "I want you all to know how relaxing it is to get yourself pampered, it's always good to take care of yourself." The key to raising healthy boys is to expose them to all kinds of activities so that they don't start associating those activities with particular genders. Not only do De'Brence and his son go on annual nail salon trips, but the father also makes sure that he takes his son to buy flowers once in a while. "Took my son to the flower shop to pick his bouquet because he deserves his flowers," he said. In this video, the son can be seen smiling and looks visibly happy as he goes with his father to pick out flowers for himself.

Many took to the video to talk about the adorable father-son duo. "You guys are too cute 😭 we need more dads and sons like this in the world," writes @hollybobollu. "I love these videos. Can't wait to take my son with me," writes @michelfant5.

Speaking with Good Morning America, the father explained that after he became a father he realized that he wanted to be as present as he could in his son's life. He talked about not having a father by his side when he was growing up and didn't want his son to ever experience the same feeling. He shared how he and his son enjoy doing a lot of things together, including everyday tasks like grocery shipping and more. 

"[People on social media] are enjoying the fact that we do a lot of different things outside of the norm of just being a father and son," De'Brence said. "Some things are just probably normal to people, and then some things are like, 'Oh, wait, I never thought to do that. Maybe I should do that with my child now, whether [they're] a boy or girl,'" he said. 

Apart from making core memories that his son can look back upon, he also strives to break the stigma attached to certain activities. "A lot of men probably don't know that they have to do certain things to keep up their hygiene, so I just want to introduce him to that stuff, just to make sure that he [knows] before he goes out there into the real world," he said. 

You can follow De’Brence (@onlydebrence) for more parenting content on Instagram.