It is a universal truth that we fathers are pretty much hopeless if left holding the baby. Isn't it? Well, for those in any doubt, here's the visual proof.
These hilarious photographs show how clueless we dads are at being in charge of our charges. But before I'm slaughtered by the Perfect Dad Brigade – calm down, fellas. It's a joke!
For these pictures are the creation of the twisted genius mind of Dave Engelow, who has shot to online fame by depicting his domestic chaos when left to fend for himself with his two-year-old daughter Alice Bee.
Entitled The World's Best Father, Dave Engledow, from Tahoma Park, Maryland, can be seen posing alongside his little girl in a number of unlikely (hmm!) scenarios.
They show Dave apparently losing to his little girl in an arm-wrestling match, reading Twilight to her at bedtime, and driving his car as she giggles in the carrier on its roof.
The series, published on Kickstarter and Facebook, shows the youngster apparently washing dishes, ironing, vacuuming and whipping up pancakes for her father's breakfast in bed.
Dave Engledow
She is even seen sitting in a steaming pot on the stove, holding a lit flame and having apparently sliced her father's fingers with a pizza cutter.
The photos – which have been both praised as brilliant and condemned as 'disturbing' by viewers – were created by Dave in the digital picture manipulator Photoshop.
Each image is usually a composite of many individual photos, and can take up to 20 hours to create. Dave revealed that the first photo in the series was produced as a joke, shared only with family and friends.
I wanted to capture the dazed, sleep-deprived obliviousness of the new father."
"Right before staging the shot, inspiration hit and I decided that the shot might be stronger if the coffee mug said something like 'father of the year' or some similar superlative so I purchased the mug that has since made an appearance in all 56 (and counting) images in this photo series."
He received such a positive reaction, he followed it with a second, this time themed around July 4th, which was approaching at the time. It showed Alice Bee holding a lit match and chewing on a box of fireworks, as he absent-mindedly reads the sports section of the newspaper.That was when the World's Best Father series truly took off, and Dave created dozens of other images starring his young daughter.
Describing the idea behind each image, he explained: "The character I portray in this series is intended to be a parody of the father I hope I never become - distracted, self-absorbed, neglectful, clueless, or even occasionally overbearing."