15 Celeb Dads Who’ve Confessed Their Biggest Parenting Fails

We give Ashton Kutcher credit for attempting to make a special breakfast for his daughter, but as he shared on Instagram, this probably counts as a pancake fail: "Was trying for a Skye from #pawpatrol pancake. My daughter: "What's this supposed to be?" #humbled" At least it looks like a dog?"

It would be easy to assume that Chris Hemsworth would win every event at his kids' school field day just by showing up and looking like Chris freaking Hemsworth. But he confessed that he let his competitive side take over at a dad's race and took it way too seriously, even after telling his kids that winning isn't the most important thing. He told GQ the story:

"It was like something out of a movie. There's about 15 of us, and they're all talking about the guy who's won the past two years so I start to get really nervous. I'm doing secret stretches. Another guy asks me, 'Are you fast?' I say I haven't run in years, but in my head I'm like, 'Yeah, I'm fast. I'm gonna crush this whole field.' Here I am telling my daughter that winning is not important, but there is no way I'm losing this race."

Ah, yes, the old "do as I say, not as I do" fail!

For actor Will Smith, bringing his son Jaden into the family business by costarring in the movie After Earth resulted in deeply felt dad fail feelings. The movie flopped, and Jaden got terrible reviews. As Will shared in his memoir, Will, "After Earth was an abysmal box office and critical failure. And what was worse was that Jaden took the hit. Fans and the press were absolutely vicious; they said and printed things about Jaden that I refuse to repeat. Jaden had faithfully done everything that I'd instructed him to do, and I had coached him into the worst public mauling he'd ever experienced."

While he was president, Barack Obama was one of the most powerful men in the world. He was also still a dad and had an unfortunate tendency toward terrible dad jokes, much to the dismay of daughters Sasha and Malia. In fact, he even had to assure an audience in Pittsburgh in 2016 that he had finally kicked the habit. "Don't worry. I don't have any more bad jokes. These are so corny, I know," he told them.

Dax Shepard and Kristen Bell may not be afraid of oversharing stories about their lives, but that doesn't mean that Dax doesn't feel super awkward when his daughters catch their parents in the act! His dad fail was having to explain "why we're taking, like, a nap in the afternoon while [the kids] were loose." He said it was "full coitus interruptus" after they put on the TV in the living room and then "stole away for a minute, an afternoon delight," only to have the kids walk in and bust them in the act.

Tom Brady might not have the most relatable life, but his dad fail feelings make sense to any parent who has an intense job. In the 2021 documentary Man in the Arena, he admitted that he worries that he's not been as present in his kids' lives as his own father was in his. "When I think about being a dad, I think about him because of what my dad meant to me. I know I'm not as good a dad to my kids that my dad's been to me," he said.

"I think maybe what I'd wish for my children is to find something that they really love to do like I have, but I think I have taken it to an extreme, too. You know, I hope they don't take things as far as I've taken them. I want them to experience great success in whatever they do, but there's a torment about me that I don't wish upon them."

Anderson Cooper's dad fail resulted in him wishing he'd been lied to! He shared the story with Stephen Colbert in 2021. "I was going to Israel last week. It was my first work trip for 60 Minutes, and I was doing an interview, and I get this text from Wyatt's other dad, Benjamin. He said, 'He just walked!!'" Anderson said that he wished Benjamin would have lied to him about it, explaining, "In my household, when I grew up, you would lie about everything. He should have just lied. He should have lied and said, 'Oh no, he's not walking at all.' So when I got home, and he walked, we'd all be like, 'Oh my god! It's the first walk!'"

Any parent with more than one kid knows that it is all too easy to call them by the wrong name, but it's a bit of a dad fail when David Beckham does it on Instagram in front of an audience of 74 million followers! In 2020, David posted a picture of himself with sons Brooklyn and Cruz, but tagged son Romeo instead of Cruz. The mistake was fixed after fans gave him some good-natured teasing about it in the comments section.

As a new dad, it's easy to make mistakes. As a celebrity new dad, pictures of those mistakes can end up on the internet, which is what happened to Ryan Reynolds. A photo of him wearing his infant daughter incorrectly was posted on social media, and Ryan later acknowledged his fail during an interview with Today. "The baby's not properly secured in the vessel that I'm wearing there. I'm a first-time dad, and that is not the first mistake I've made. I can guarantee you it won't be last," he said.

Sometimes dads fail when they can't quite get it together enough to actually stop laughing and offer correction when their adorable toddler drops several f-bombs. Or at least that was the case for father-of-six James Van Der Beek. Warning: The video here includes the salty language, in case other parents want to avoid having their kid learn that particular word.

Mark Wahlberg is a father of four and also an expert on why we shouldn't wear socks on wooden stairs. He's confessed that he was holding his then-2-year-old son when he slipped on the stairs and tumbled down. His dad instincts kicked in, though, and he took the brunt of the fall on his own back and neck. Ouch!

Sometimes dad fails can feel really big in the moment but can seem pretty minor when they become a story later on. Actor Will Ferrell had one of those moments when he screwed up and took his son to the wrong soccer field and the kid missed his whole practice, something that Will said left his son "pretty wrecked."

Neil Patrick Harris once frightened his kids by video calling them while still fully in character as the scary Count Olaf from his show A Series of Unfortunate Events. He revealed that his twins did not enjoy it at all. "They did not mind the prosthetics; they did not like the voice," he said. "When I FaceTimed them, 'Hello, children,' they would freak out, so I don't recommend it."

Chris Pratt has a family rule that his kids can swear, but only when they are fishing. His hilarious dad fail comes from a fishing trip with his then-5-year-old son that involved a floppy fish and some very NSFW language in response. Chris recounted the story on The Graham Norton Show, and we can safely say we've never heard someone call a bass THAT before!

Dwyane Wade has been a great role model for how to publicly support a child who identifies as LGBTQ, but even he admits that he had to figure out how to not make a dad fail by coming to peace with the fact that his child might not be cisgender or straight. He revealed that he felt like a failure when he "had to look myself in the mirror and say, 'What if your son comes home and tells you he's gay? What are you going to do? How are you going to be?'"