{"id":7120,"date":"2022-07-07T09:58:39","date_gmt":"2022-07-07T13:58:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/?p=7120"},"modified":"2022-07-07T09:58:39","modified_gmt":"2022-07-07T13:58:39","slug":"viral-tik-tok-dad-shares-advice-with-millions-of-followers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/inspirationreport\/2022\/07\/viral-tik-tok-dad-shares-advice-with-millions-of-followers.html","title":{"rendered":"Viral Tik Tok Dad Shares Advice With Millions of Followers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Summer Clayton may not have children in real life, but he\u2019s\u00a0a \u201cproud dad\u201d to 2.8 million people\u00a0on TikTok. Every week, he sits down to dinner and a virtual chat with his \u201ckids.\u201d He looks into the camera with empathy and tells them he\u2019s proud of them. He teaches them\u00a0how to shave<\/a> and reminds them\u00a0it\u2019s OK to feel pain\u00a0when life hurts. Some days, he prays with them.<\/p>\n

Clayton, a civilian fitness trainer at Columbus Air Force Base in northeastern Mississippi, is not a therapist or a life coach. He\u2019s also only 26 and has no kids. To some, his one-way conversations may seem silly. But his compassion and charisma come through in the TikTok videos. These videos have struck a chord among people who need a father figure or just someone who appears to listen to their troubles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of great memories that I pull from in my childhood, but there\u2019s also these deficits that I don\u2019t want other people to experience, whether it\u2019s the feeling of sitting alone in the schoolyard when I was younger or just not having that relationship with my dad that I wanted,\u201d Clayton says about his approach to the videos.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allows me to practice what it means to be nonjudgmental and to be kind.\u201d Clayton is a health buff with a bachelor\u2019s degree in corporate fitness and a master\u2019s in kinesiology. He loves lifting weights, taking photos, and cooking when he\u2019s not working at the base or making his videos.<\/p>\n

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@yourprouddad<\/a>Happy Friday\u2764\ufe0f\u266c gymnop\u00e9die no.1 – Edits<\/a><\/p>\n<\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n