Decisions, Adventure & Jedi Grocery Tricks: The Path to a Perfect Father’s Day

By Tyler Renaghan, Dad and Senior Director of Retail Accounts at Instacart

As a dad to five kids under the age of six, most of my days are planned around my kids’ activity schedules, wants, and needs. That’s why Father’s Day feels so special. It’s a day where everything is up to me…for the most part.

On Father’s Day, dads are presented with a myriad of micro-choices that can’t withstand even a moment’s hesitation before the decision becomes out of reach.

My Father’s Day morning tends to start with an internal debate about how the rest of the day will unfold. Do I go the selfish or selfless route? “Sleeping in and being pampered sounds nice,” I think to myself as I’m hit in the head — literally — by one of my kids’ shoes given the built-up excitement surrounding the day. Decision made.

My next choice lies in taking it easy at home or rallying the troops for an adventure. This one’s easy! Go big *until someone has a meltdown* and then go home. There’s a good chance that your partner and kids are already cooking up a plan that is right up your alley, and is fun for everyone involved, so I always choose to accept it and find a way to make it even bigger!

One thing they teach in Boy Scouts that has helped me immensely as a father is to ‘always be prepared.’ To ensure we’re making the most of our adventure day, we pack a Yeti cooler bag with our favorite snacks — Pirate’s Booty, fig bars, Annie’s gummies, and water bottles for the kids, RX bars and Fort Point Animal Pale Ale for the adults — and a change of clothes for the aftermath of beach play or the guaranteed fall in the creek.

On the way home, the conversation about our next meal typically arises. With a car of sleepy, sandy kids, the last thing we want to do is tromp around a grocery store or grace a restaurant with our presence. Whoever is copiloting will typically put in an Instacart order for a store pick-up en route home so that we’re able to whip something up that day and have snacks available for the start of the week. The kids and I like to pretend to have superpowers and use our Jedi mind tricks to summon the person out of the store and put our perfect order safely in the trunk. I always greet the shoppers by their first names, which continually convinces my kids that I can read (and control) minds…this is something that I will milk as long as I am able to.

At the end of the day, once the decisions are made and the adventures are done, one of the most important things a dad can do — I like to practice this every night — is to thank each and every member of the family. I’ll give the kids big hugs and look right at them and tell them how much I love them and how thankful I am that they made me a dad!

Once the kids are asleep, it’s important for dads to acknowledge their wife or partner because none of this would be possible without them! A word to the wise … be careful, otherwise, you might become a dad again with another set of twins!

About Tyler Renaghan

As a dad to five kids under the age of 6, including two sets of twins, Tyler Renaghan is an expert on organization, prioritization, and making quality time for family. When he’s not taking the kids to soccer, ballet, and gymnastics or spending time outdoors with his family, Tyler is the Senior Director of Retail Accounts at Instacart, a North American leader in online grocery. He leads a team of five people and manages relationships with Instacart’s top retail partners.

As a busy dad, Tyler is constantly juggling to-dos and looking for ways to streamline and prioritize. He was an Instacart user even before joining the team, and it’s the first company he’s worked for where he actually uses the service regularly, averaging about 11 Instacart orders per month. If Tyler could have one superpower, it’s a toss-up between the ability to hear what everyone in his family is saying when they all talk at once or the ability to clone himself.

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Instacart is the leading grocery technology company in North America, partnering with more than 1,400 national, regional, and local retail banners to deliver from more than 80,000 stores across more than 14,000 cities in North America. To read more Instacart posts, you can browse the company blog or search by keyword using the search bar at the top of the page.