There’s a new kind of trend for guys online. It’s called the “trad son.” Rather than following the typical bachelor stereotype, trad sons film themselves doing chores & helping parents around the house. Yes, they live with their parents.
But why? Why has the trend become so popular, and who’s driving this popularity? Let’s find out.
What people mean by “trad sons”
The “trad son” name refers to young men who still live with their parents. They make their living situation part of their online identity.
The majority of the videos show their routines, like mowing the lawn & folding laundry, as well as chatting in the kitchen. The videos tend to mix sincerity with a sense of domestic pride.
The family-care angle visible on camera
Some of the slightly more emotional videos show trad sons helping aging parents & managing meds. A few of them involve running errands.
Rather than trying to seem flashy, the videos come across as being more grounded. It’s part of what makes these videos so popular. Many people can relate to such images of family life because they’ve experienced it themselves.
Food in trad son feeds
One important aspect of trad son videos is food. But not necessarily in an influencer foodie way. Trad sons usually focus on making breakfast and they’ll usually film the food simply because they’re already cooking.
It hooks viewers who get interested in repetitive kitchen tasks because they’re familiar. We’ll find out later why young adults are making the return home.
Why trad sons film errands & micro tasks
Another important aspect of trad son videos is the errands. They take up a big part of the day in real life. Guys will record themselves making Costco runs or filling up their cars with gas.
There’s no real point to them. Really, such short videos are simply capturing what trad sons were already going to do for a parent or the house.
The connection with “tradwife” content
A lot of people lump “trad sons” with “trad wives.” But they’re not exactly the same. Yes, they both involve home life & chores, yet trad wife content tends to focus more on marriage and homemaking.
Trad sons focus more on living at home & helping parents out. The discussions are less centered around gender roles with trad sons, although both are quite nostalgia-heavy.
TikTok’s masculinity lanes
There are plenty of male identity zones already on TikTok, including the gym crowd & the sigma types. Trad sons are similar to these spaces.
However, one of the major differences is that there’s rarely a lesson or rant attached to trad sons videos. The videos are simply meant to show the day in a life for a trad son.
The living-at-home piece
The trad sons trend isn’t an online-only phenomenon, though. More adults in their 20s & 30s live with their parents now than they have ever done in the last few decades. The pattern increased after 2020.
Multigenerational homes are becoming more common because many families find them to be a practical way of making life work for them. We’ll see later some of the reasons why.
How the posts spread on the platform
There’s one thing that TikTok’s algorithm loves and that’s routine. It pushes things with the same song & same camera angle.
Such videos travel through the system relatively easily because they’re so repetitive and once you see one video of trad sons, the algorithm pushes more onto your feed. It’s also similar to another trend that we’ll look at.
How the label spread online
The trad son trend became especially popular after an episode of Jeopardy. One of the male contestants called himself a “stay-at-home son” and the term later turned into “trad son.”
It became a way for guys to classify themselves and some companies even created merch related to the trend, including Abdullah Abbasi’s “Stay At Home Sons” line.
Why young adults return home
So why are sons returning home? It’s down to several reasons, including losing jobs & going through breakups. Increases in rent don’t help either.
A single rough patch is enough for moving back home to make sense, and most trad sons don’t think of it as a failure. Moving back in with parents is simply the fallback that’s available.
Sources: Please see here for a complete listing of all sources that were consulted in the preparation of this article.
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