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TikTok Has Made It Possible for This Single Dad to Do Everything — Except Date (Exclusive)
Dylan Mondo is a full-time single dad to four children and shares looks into his parenting journey on his TikTok account, @EverythingDad
Social media has allowed Mondo to provide for his family for years, as he started by running an Instagram page dedicated to couponing and finding bargain deals
Though his platform has allowed him to do so much for his kids, it's hindered one area entirely: datingOne single dad has been trying to do it all.
Dylan Mondo, known online as @EverythingDad, is a full-time single dad to four kids, ages 13, 12, 10 and 6. His everyday content isn't flashy or elaborately edited day-in-the-life videos, but instead, he shares glimpses of the mundanity that comes with running a household as a single father.
Users will recognize videos of him making dinner for his four kids, doing his youngest daughters' hair for school, tidying up after a busy day or just showing what few quiet moments he can find in between the chaos.
Before he started his TikTok account, Mondo, 31, ran an Instagram account dedicated to couponing. While he was still with his kids' mother, he says the family operated on a single income, and he dreamed of being able to have stockpiles of necessities like some of the best couponers.
'Things were tough, and I was always looking for ways to save money,' he says. 'I've always been a provider for my family. I've always done everything. I've always taken care of everyone. And so I started the coupon dad because I fell into all these moms couponing, and I was like, okay, all these ladies are doing this. I can do this too.'
As Mondo mastered couponing, he started an Instagram account to share his thrifty tips with other parents, hoping to save some money, posting his exact hacks for free.
'I just wanted to help people. I wasn't making any money, and everyone was expecting me to post what deals to get, where to go, what to do,' he explains. 'And then my posts started going viral, so I gained like 200,000 followers over a year… It just became this spot for parents to come and shop for their house and shop for their kids, because I'm a bargain shopper.'
That Instagram account, now called The Saving Dad, currently sits at more than 315,000 followers, and the affiliate marketing income through that account allowed him to quit his corporate job of 10 years while still providing for his kids.
He eventually began expanding his brand. He began filming TikToks during his separation from the mother of his children, which he tells PEOPLE was 'the hardest time of my life.'
'I just thought one day I was like, man, this is hard. This is hard work. It's a lot of work doing this by yourself. There's got to be people that are struggling just like me,' Mondo says. 'I was like, why don't I just set up the camera and just start filming myself? So basically I turned one of the hardest times in my life to, I don't know, I guess you could say the best times.'
That account now has 2.9 million followers. A platform that often comes with privacy concerns — especially for parenting creators — but Mondo has developed a balance in his filming schedule, only taking the camera with him for small snippets of his day.
'I used it as a form of therapy. I was being creative. I just started filming and editing the regular things that I do as a dad, and it really resonated with people and it kind of kept me going,' he says. 'I literally just picked up the camera and started recording. There was nothing to it. I didn't plan to get anything out of it.'
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For Mondo, he says the purpose of his larger platform is to inspire others who are parenting alone, and he's received plenty of comments and messages from other fathers who have resonated with his content.
'I'll get comments where dads are like, 'You make me want to be a better dad,' or 'You make me want to be more present.' Or like, 'I'm learning how to do my daughter's hair because of you,' ' Mondo says. 'That's the reason why I do what I do… There are some people who don't think that it's possible or don't think it's realistic or they can't do this. But I mean, in my world, this is what I can do. And if I can do it, I think anyone is capable of doing it. We all live in the same 24 hours.'
'You don't see very many men doing social media or doing what we do,' he continues. 'So I think it's refreshing for people to see dads being so involved, especially online. I mean, I'm sure there's tons of dads out there who are involved, but on social media, you don't see too much of it.'
With an audience that's primarily women, Mondo says he's received largely positive comments on his content. But he acknowledges it's a double standard within the influencer sphere, as so many single moms aren't given the same grace.
"I feel like the dad creators, it's so different [for them]. I mean, we all do the same thing... even the way that the people look at us, we're just doing things that the moms are doing too, yet sometimes I feel like the dads are praised a little more," he says.
Mondo's four children occasionally make appearances in his slice-of-life content, though he emphasizes that it's not kid-centric; it's dad-centric. His videos showcasing the hairstyles he'll recreate on his youngest daughters have been some of his most popular on TikTok, but he says he never forces his kids to participate in his videos.
'My younger two are always like, 'Can you do my hair?' Or 'Can we make a video?'... And then my older two are like, 'Okay, dad, [my friends] found out who you are,' he laughs while noting that they even look out for his numbers, with his son reminding him to post if it's been a minute since his last video. 'They're all proud of me. They love me. They know I'm a good dad, and they know I like to do this for fun, and they support me. They love it.'
As Mondo's content has become increasingly popular, he's also acutely aware of the attention it puts on him and his personal life. Though he's a self-described 'super private' person, he admits that some women online have seen his TikTok page as his 'dating profile.'
'They'll message me, and they'll try to talk to me and get to know me and stuff. But like I said, I'm not on social media for that purpose. I don't entertain that,' he says. 'And then I feel like whenever I do meet people, they already know who I am.'
Dating as a single dad is already hard, but the added exposure of having a platform where he shares his life as a single father has made it 'kind of impossible' for him to seriously pursue a relationship.
'I'm really a single dad. I do everything. Everything. I've dated here and there, but it just doesn't work out,' he says. 'Kids come first, and I mean… when you're putting your kids first, I think dating as a single parent can be difficult.'
Read the original article on People
