Did your dad really read the newspaper every morning before work?
August 24, 2025
If so, what was his profession? And what was the decade?
I am American, but grew up without a father in the home, and always saw dads reading the newspaper every morning on tv and movies. I wonder if this really happens.
29 comments
My dad? Definitely not.
My mother, yes. Every morning at the table.
While drinking a pot of coffee and smoking a pack of cigarettes.
Probably not, when he was working days he was gone before it was delivered and before I woke up.
We did get the Daily News and the Advance and he definitely sat at the kitchen table reading it, as did I, my brother and my mother. But as an adult I have never had the paper delivered as the internet became a thing, and i was an early adopter.
I was also a paper boy starting at age 11.
I was born in ’74.
I don’t remember my dad reading the paper before work, my mom definitely did though, and I recall both my grandfather’s reading the paper first thing in the morning.
Would have been in the 90s
Do you get on Reddit in the morning while you’re pooping?
Same energy.
But my parents really only read the Sunday paper, there isn’t much time on weekdays for sitting and reading the news
Not in the morning, but he would read the paper after work to wind down.
Our local paper was delivered in the afternoon. He would read it after dinner.
Our paper came in the evening so he always read it after work.
He read it on the train on the way to work – and possibly a different paper on the way home.
All through the 70s – 90s.
It was pretty common when I grew up to get a morning paper (in my case The Pittsburgh Post Gazette) and an evening paper (Pittsburgh Press). It was also a common first job of kids: paper delivery boy.
Never, but the Sunday edition with coffee seemed like an important ritual for him
He worked overnights, so he technically read it after work. He would read both Boston newspapers cover to cover, every single day, without fail.
My dad worked second shift (3p-11p), so he read the paper every day before work. He started with the obituary to make sure he didn’t go to work if he was dead. One day his name was in the obituaries, so he called out dead. I worked there first shift and the amount of people who thought he was really dead was scary. But he always was fond of unfunny pranks
I read the newspaper before school, and I was in middle school.
Born mid 80s, we had a daily newspaper delivery until the early 2000s at least.
We did not all have breakfast together. Everyone is heading to work or school.
News wasn’t as time sensitive as it is now.
Newspapers would also have plenty of content that wasn’t based on current events like advice columns, humor columns, investigative reporting, and so on.
My dad? No, I don’t think he’d even be able to read it. I read it every time it was delivered which was once a week.
Yup. Me too. He’d read the news, the comics, and stock market section. And I’d look at sports and classifieds. He had to leave for work before 6 am and he’d get annoyed if the paper hadn’t run by the time he was dressed and ready for breakfast.
He was an electrician.
When I was in elementary school, we all read the newspaper before school and work – mom, dad, and kids. It wasn’t a “dad” thing. I was born in 1975, and we used to love to do the crossword and read the comics. My high school started at 7:30 am, so it was harder to find time to read it in the morning. But, we had plenty of school assignments where we had to read the newspaper or magazines like Time or US News and World Report.
I had a newspaper subscription until 2012 and still read it every morning then.
After work. He’s fine home, change his clothes, mom would put their dinner on the table (the kids ate earlier), and after dinner he’d have coffee and read the paper. There would always be commentary
I’m 49 my dad read the paper in the morning and we used to get the afternoon paper too.
I also read the paper every day until I was about 35.
Yes, always. Coffee, toast, eggs, and reading the paper.
We were never casually up before work or school. We got ready and were out the door. I always thought that was just tv
I graduated high school in the mid 80s . My parents owned a retail business. He read the paper with breakfast every single morning until the day he died in 2010.
I read the daily paper every morning until about 2015.
These days I subscribe to the online version of the newspaper and read at least some of it every day.
No. He worked too hard and too early for such things.
He was a teacher. And yes. He didn’t get up in time to read cover to cover but he’d always be reading it while he ate breakfast.
Everyone in my family did so, including me from about age six on. Also did so for ~40 years after that…I didn’t stop until our local paper became a joke (Gannet-owned) and I finally canceled my subscription around 2012.
In college about 50% of the rooms on my dorm floor got the morning paper, and we’d all read it before classes.
Both my parents and grandparents did and were generally better informed. This was because they regularly read factual news, rather than relying on platforms like TikTok or Twitter. Reading real news requires you to engage your brain, which helped them think, write, and speak more thoughtfully about current events and the world.
You also learned you do not bother your parents from 7 AM through 12 PM on a Sunday morning until they finished the entire Sunday edition of the paper.
My dad left for work in the mornings just as the paper was delivered. He was a superintendent for commercial construction jobs all over the state. This would have been all of the 80s and 90s.
He was usually home by 3:30 or 4pm, and would take the paper into the bathroom, destroy the downstairs bathroom only the way a dad could, then get showered and changed in the upstairs bathroom. After that, he would make sure our chores were done; yell if they weren’t, then retire to his chair in the living room and pick-up on reading the paper where he left off just as the 5pm news would start. By 6 he would be snoring away with the paper still in his hands until my mom got home, then he would continue reading and watching news\sports whatever until dinner.
Yes, in the 90s and early 00s, although my dad was a journalist so I might be a bit biased. But I did too, first the comics when I was a little kid, then the baseball box scores and some entertainment/culture news when I was a teenager. TV news existed but our only TV was in the basement so we didn’t watch it during meals or in the background during the day.
29 comments
My dad? Definitely not.
My mother, yes. Every morning at the table.
While drinking a pot of coffee and smoking a pack of cigarettes.
Probably not, when he was working days he was gone before it was delivered and before I woke up.
We did get the Daily News and the Advance and he definitely sat at the kitchen table reading it, as did I, my brother and my mother. But as an adult I have never had the paper delivered as the internet became a thing, and i was an early adopter.
I was also a paper boy starting at age 11.
I was born in ’74.
I don’t remember my dad reading the paper before work, my mom definitely did though, and I recall both my grandfather’s reading the paper first thing in the morning.
Would have been in the 90s
Do you get on Reddit in the morning while you’re pooping?
Same energy.
But my parents really only read the Sunday paper, there isn’t much time on weekdays for sitting and reading the news
Not in the morning, but he would read the paper after work to wind down.
Our local paper was delivered in the afternoon. He would read it after dinner.
Our paper came in the evening so he always read it after work.
He read it on the train on the way to work – and possibly a different paper on the way home.
All through the 70s – 90s.
It was pretty common when I grew up to get a morning paper (in my case The Pittsburgh Post Gazette) and an evening paper (Pittsburgh Press). It was also a common first job of kids: paper delivery boy.
Never, but the Sunday edition with coffee seemed like an important ritual for him
He worked overnights, so he technically read it after work. He would read both Boston newspapers cover to cover, every single day, without fail.
My dad worked second shift (3p-11p), so he read the paper every day before work. He started with the obituary to make sure he didn’t go to work if he was dead. One day his name was in the obituaries, so he called out dead. I worked there first shift and the amount of people who thought he was really dead was scary. But he always was fond of unfunny pranks
I read the newspaper before school, and I was in middle school.
Born mid 80s, we had a daily newspaper delivery until the early 2000s at least.
We did not all have breakfast together. Everyone is heading to work or school.
News wasn’t as time sensitive as it is now.
Newspapers would also have plenty of content that wasn’t based on current events like advice columns, humor columns, investigative reporting, and so on.
My dad? No, I don’t think he’d even be able to read it. I read it every time it was delivered which was once a week.
Yup. Me too. He’d read the news, the comics, and stock market section. And I’d look at sports and classifieds. He had to leave for work before 6 am and he’d get annoyed if the paper hadn’t run by the time he was dressed and ready for breakfast.
He was an electrician.
When I was in elementary school, we all read the newspaper before school and work – mom, dad, and kids. It wasn’t a “dad” thing. I was born in 1975, and we used to love to do the crossword and read the comics. My high school started at 7:30 am, so it was harder to find time to read it in the morning. But, we had plenty of school assignments where we had to read the newspaper or magazines like Time or US News and World Report.
I had a newspaper subscription until 2012 and still read it every morning then.
After work. He’s fine home, change his clothes, mom would put their dinner on the table (the kids ate earlier), and after dinner he’d have coffee and read the paper. There would always be commentary
I’m 49 my dad read the paper in the morning and we used to get the afternoon paper too.
I also read the paper every day until I was about 35.
Yes, always. Coffee, toast, eggs, and reading the paper.
We were never casually up before work or school. We got ready and were out the door. I always thought that was just tv
I graduated high school in the mid 80s . My parents owned a retail business. He read the paper with breakfast every single morning until the day he died in 2010.
I read the daily paper every morning until about 2015.
These days I subscribe to the online version of the newspaper and read at least some of it every day.
No. He worked too hard and too early for such things.
He was a teacher. And yes. He didn’t get up in time to read cover to cover but he’d always be reading it while he ate breakfast.
Everyone in my family did so, including me from about age six on. Also did so for ~40 years after that…I didn’t stop until our local paper became a joke (Gannet-owned) and I finally canceled my subscription around 2012.
In college about 50% of the rooms on my dorm floor got the morning paper, and we’d all read it before classes.
Both my parents and grandparents did and were generally better informed. This was because they regularly read factual news, rather than relying on platforms like TikTok or Twitter. Reading real news requires you to engage your brain, which helped them think, write, and speak more thoughtfully about current events and the world.
You also learned you do not bother your parents from 7 AM through 12 PM on a Sunday morning until they finished the entire Sunday edition of the paper.
My dad left for work in the mornings just as the paper was delivered. He was a superintendent for commercial construction jobs all over the state. This would have been all of the 80s and 90s.
He was usually home by 3:30 or 4pm, and would take the paper into the bathroom, destroy the downstairs bathroom only the way a dad could, then get showered and changed in the upstairs bathroom. After that, he would make sure our chores were done; yell if they weren’t, then retire to his chair in the living room and pick-up on reading the paper where he left off just as the 5pm news would start. By 6 he would be snoring away with the paper still in his hands until my mom got home, then he would continue reading and watching news\sports whatever until dinner.
Yes, in the 90s and early 00s, although my dad was a journalist so I might be a bit biased. But I did too, first the comics when I was a little kid, then the baseball box scores and some entertainment/culture news when I was a teenager. TV news existed but our only TV was in the basement so we didn’t watch it during meals or in the background during the day.