During his most recent press briefing, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo doled out some parenting advice to fathers whose children are starting to bring home their significant others.
The dad of three daughters has offered plenty of guidance throughout the coronavirus pandemic, but this time, he's giving advice on what to tell your children if they ask what you think about their significant other. His helpful tip? You can't tell your children that you don't like their new boo.
“Today is Sunday and I come from an Italian-American household where we had a great tradition on Sundays, the family had to come together at the table,” he said, starting the discussion on family.
Gov. Cuomo explained that his daughter, 25-year-old Mariah Kennedy Cuomo, brought home her boyfriend who would be joining them for dinner. This is where his fatherly advice came in, talking to any parent whose kids have started dating.
“The boyfriend is very nice and we like the boyfriend,” he prefaced his guidance. “Advice to fathers: the answer on what you think of the boyfriend is always, ‘I like the boyfriend.” Always. Because there’s only two options. Either you like the boyfriend, in which case, you say, ‘I like the boyfriend.’ Or you don’t like the boyfriend. But you can never say you don’t like the boyfriend.”
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He continued his explanation, revealing that he had learned this lesson the hard way.
“Otherwise it triggers NDS,” he said. “NDS is 'natural defiance syndrome.' It’s not documented, but it is a psychological condition where if you say as a father ‘I don’t like him,’ natural defiance syndrome kicks in and then they like the boyfriend more because he is opposed by the father. So the answer has to be ‘I like the boyfriend.’”
Lucky for Mariah, her father admitted to actually liking her current boyfriend so there is no lying involved in this relationship.
“But even if you don’t like the boyfriend the answer can only be that ‘I like the boyfriend,’” he said. "But we’re going to be at dinner with the boyfriend and we’re going to have our spaghetti and our meatballs."
And while Gov. Cuomo may have parenting down to a T, one area he may still need to work on are his cooking skills.
"They won’t eat the spaghetti and the meatballs because when I cook it they just won’t eat it," he concluded. "But they move it around the dish and that’s all I can ask.”