Dad’s ‘horizontal parenting’ might just be the most 'dad thing' ever and you've got to applaud his genius

Many parents return home tired from work, hoping for their kids' help with chores and quality time together. However, children, living in their own world, have their own love language, making it nearly impossible to meet halfway. This was the case for a man whose little ones craved his attention when he got home, exhausted and with just enough energy to lie down. Not wanting to ignore them, he found a unique way to connect. Now his wife, Elkey Zandstra—who goes by @Elkeyzandstra on Instagram—wants a book written about her husband’s "horizontal parenting" technique.

In a widely circulating video, the dad can be seen lying on the floor with his back facing the ceiling, ready to deploy his parenting hack. His t-shirt features a drawing of a street that starts at his lower back and extends to his shoulders. Interestingly, his daughter uses a toy car-turned-massage roller to travel along the design. The fun activity keeps both the kids and their father happy, as the latter appears to enjoy a nice massage. "When your husband is the master of horizontal parenting and should write a book about it," reads the text overlay, accompanied by Zandstra’s amused reaction.

The next activity shows the kids giving their sleepy dad a makeover while he's lying flat on the floor. This time, with his face visible, the little ones turn their father into a "dress-up doll." Later, he becomes a "DIY Whacamole" machine, with soft toys popping out of holes in a cardboard sheet above his body, which the children then hit with playful force. The toddler boy and his kindergartener sister also start "gardening" their dad’s back with a backscratcher. The 28-second footage wraps up with the kids playing Tic-Tac-Toe on their dad’s back, marking the fifth and final activity.

While pitching the idea to publishers for a book on horizontal parenting, Zandstra explained in the caption: “It all started with an idea he had about a massage roller car that turned this whole thing into a series, and it’s probably my favorite series.” The clip, showcasing the dad’s extraordinary effort to bond with his kids by doing nothing, has garnered widespread attention on social media, amassing 1,000,048 likes. Among the reactions, @mendipeluca_ joked, “Not me thinking horizontal parenting was a method where you treat your children as equals—only to find out this man was lying on the ground the entire video!” @linktro.t added, “I also like this for the aspect of physical contact. Feeling someone play tic-tac-toe on my back seems oddly relaxing.”

In a follow-up video demonstrating another minimal-effort horizontal parenting activity, the dad is shown lying on the floor with his bare back exposed. This time, the kids draw a painting on his back using lotion and a backscratcher. They also use a massage roller for extra comfort and some sheets to wipe off the remaining lotion. The little girl bursts into laughter when she asks her mom, Zandstra, to make sure her “daddy doesn’t move” while she leaves to do some other work. “Did you hear that?” the parenting content creator asked her husband, who nodded while trying to control his laughter.

You can follow Elkey Zandstra (@Elkeyzandstra) on Instagram for more parenting and family content.