About

I'm Not the Step Dad, I'm the Dad Who Stepped Up is a prevalent slogan and catchphrase used on T-shirts, hats and other clothing that celebrates the role of stepfathers. Online, the design has been edited onto clothing worn by characters who are father figures, and the phrase has been used as a humorous caption for images.

Origin

On June 22nd, 2017, the now-defunct Facebook page Family In My Heart started selling T-shirts with the slogan, "I'M not the Step Father, I'M The Father That Stepped Up" on Springteeshirt (design and post shown below). The original post gained over 172,000 reactions and 12,700 comments prior to the page getting removed.^[1][2][3]

Spread

In the following weeks, the image of the shirt was reposted on multiple Facebook pages. For example, on July 7th, 2017, a repost by the Facebook^[2] page Mood Swings received over 2,300 reactions and 1,100 shares in six years.

In May 2019, a photograph of a man dressed in a black hoodie with a slogan kneeling in front of three teenagers gained viral spread (origin unknown).^[4][5] On June 5th, 2019, musician Lil Nas X captioned the photograph "me after adopting my dogs." The tweet^[6] (shown below) gained over 32,100 retweets and 270,000 likes in four years.

On April 23rd, 2022, Redditor -fakebirds- edited the T-shirt onto Joseph on a painting of Jesus, Maria and Joseph. The post (shown below) received over 8,300 upvotes in the /r/dankchristianmemes^[7] subreddit and was widely circulated online in the following months.^[8][9]

The design maintained its presence in memes through 2022 and 2023. For example, on January 9th, 2023, Tumblr^[10] user yamujiburo posted an image of Jessie from Pokémon wearing the shirt. The post (shown below, left) garnered over 5,500 reblogs and 13,600 likes in four months. On April 17th, 2023, Twitter^[11] user @pattymo edited the shirt onto an eagle who was reported to have adopted an orphaned eaglet. The tweet (shown below, right) gained over 20,800 retweets and 154,800 likes in six weeks.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References