Isaac Rochell is breaking down the reasoning behind his and wife Allison Kuch’s decision not to share their children’s faces on social media.
“First off, you don’t get to tell me what I do with my kids. That’s the best part of it,” Rochell, 31, said in a Thursday, April 30, TikTok, explaining that his family is very “big about recording” but had an experience that led them to reconsider their content.
“When we found out that we were pregnant the first time, my wife put up a camera when the pregnancy test was waiting to be seen, she put up multiple cameras ‘cause she wanted to record our reaction. And I wasn’t even thinking about these cameras,” he said. “Why would I? I was more focused on whether I was gonna be a dad or not. She flips it over, it’s positive. Her and I have this very intimate moment. And I was so happy that she recorded it. Didn’t even really realize she was recording it.”
Rochell noted that Kuch, 31, ended up posting the video learning about her first pregnancy, which garnered 60 million views. (Rochell and Kuch welcomed daughter Scottie in December 2023 and added daughter Pepper to their family earlier this month.)
“I remember having this icky feeling in my stomach when it went that viral of like, ‘Wow, this intimate moment that my wife and I had that I wasn’t even thinking about the cameras being on is now shared to 60 million people,’” he said, adding that people began approaching them about the video. “I’m like, ‘Well, that was like a moment for us.’ And the people that said that, they’re not wrong. They’re just consuming content. I consume content, do the same thing.”
The moment, however, served as a “wake-up call” for the couple.
“I told my wife that moment, I said, ‘We will never show our kids on social media, cause I don’t care about the views.’ I’m a dad, I could care less,” he said. “If showing my kid gets me more views, then I don’t want more views. I don’t care about it. Nobody’s entitled to share any moments that I have with my child. Nobody’s entitled to share those moments with me.”
Rochell explained that he likes “looking at my daughter’s face” and knowing that 60 million people are not watching content about her.
“If she’s looking away and you don’t get to see what a freckle looks like, or what her nose looks like, or what her smile looks like, good for you,” he said. “I’m proud of that as a dad. I’m proud that my daughter is not going to have to worry about that. And if she wants to look up in 15 years and she wants to do TikTok dances with dad, she’s 13 and she wants to do TikTok dances with dad. Hey, we will have a conversation at that point. But right now, it’s the easiest decision in the world. Nobody deserves to see the way my daughter looks, and I will never, ever apologize for doing that. So call me pick me, call me extra, call me lame. I don’t care. I love my daughter.”
Rochell captioned the video, “Standing 10 toes down on this one.”
