A dad helping his toddler daughter do things by herself regretted his decision after the coffee he had been craving gets ruined.
Connor Lodge, 26, and his fiancée Jordan, 25, live in Essex, England, and are the proud parents to 2-year-old daughter Calla.
Lodge regularly shares snippets of everyday life to his TikTok account, @con.lodge, and recently went viral when he showed how Calla was learning to pour milk into a mug gently—only for it not to go as planned.
“This clip is a snippet from a longer version I posted on my page where I was teaching Calla how to make a coffee,” he said, after previously teaching her the basics of making a mug of tea.
“We love to encourage her to do things in her own way even if it means making a bit of a mess,” he told Newsweek, and as there was little milk in the carton, making it light, Lodge assumed “my daughter could do it all by herself.”
“As the video proved, I spoke a millisecond too quickly.”
In the clip, Lodge stands behind Calla, the coffee almost ready to drink but to add the milk, and hands her the milk, telling her: “You don’t even need my help doing this.”
But quickly he’s proven wrong, as the toddler happily dumps the entire remainder of the milk into the mug, and it sloshes over the rim and splashes milk and coffee all over the table.
Connor Lodge was teaching his daughter, Calla, to make a cup of coffee. He decided to let her pour the milk on her own but quickly regretted it.
Connor Lodge was teaching his daughter, Calla, to make a cup of coffee. He decided to let her pour the milk on her own but quickly regretted it.
TikTok @con.lodge
Lodge reacts only by putting his hands over his face, and as Calla looks up at him, expectantly, tells the camera: “I’m just going to laugh.”
He wrote across the video “She did in fact need my help doing that bit” and captioned it with a laughing emoji: “That whoooosh of milk.”
Lodge told Newsweek he “thought I was going to cry” when it happened—”not because of the mess, but because I really wanted that coffee!”
But, he said, his daughter was “super proud of herself.”
She was “probably a bit confused as to why I looked bamboozled because technically she did pour milk in the mug and I never specified how much,” he added.
Lodge and his fiancée Jordan often allow their 2-year-old daughter to help with dinner and drinks, encouraging her to learn important life skills safely under their watch.
Lodge and his fiancée Jordan often allow their 2-year-old daughter to help with dinner and drinks, encouraging her to learn important life skills safely under their watch.
TikTok @con.lodge
TikTok users loved the sweet father-daughter clip, which has racked up over 200,000 likes since being shared on December 20, as one commenter joked: “Listen you can’t cry over spilt milk.”
Another wrote: “Okay but can we talk about her grip strength, she tilted that milk bottle like it weighed nothing!”
Others praised the relationship between Lodge and his young daughter, with one writing “The fact that she isn’t scared warms my heart.” And another pointing out the “look of safe curiosity in her eyes” after spilling the milk.
Toddlers’ fine motor skills are growing constantly. The NAPA Center encourages parents to do activities with their toddlers to encourage their fine motor skills, such as peeling and placing stickers, placing coins in a piggy bank, and even playing with Lego and Jenga.
Lodge told Newsweek: “We always try to give our daughter little life lessons like making teas [and] coffees and cooking, she loves to peel potatoes and do the stirring.
“We think it’s a great opportunity for learning and gives her a fantastic imagination for her play time, and we keep her safe at all times.”
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Dad Lets Toddler Help Make His Morning Coffee—Doesn’t Go To Plan
