Father Addresses Firestorm Over ‘Just Being a Dad’ Photo

— -- When Jon Arrigo posted a photo of himself playing video games while one young daughter sat beside his and another painted his toenails, the 28-year-old father unleashed a firestorm of mixed reaction.

Just hours after he uploaded the photo titled “Just Being a Dad” to the website Reddit on Dec. 2, the photo drew strong comments.

“Looks awesome from here,” one of many supportive commenters wrote of the photo, while another wrote: “Respect, my man. I'm a dad of a little girl too. She's too young for that quite yet, but I'll rock some glitter if the need arises,” but many others felt just the opposite.

“Put the controller down and play with your kids,” one wrote, and another chimed in: “Father of the year award. ... Stop playing ps4 and enjoy some time with your kids ... Priorities ...”

Arrigo talked to “GMA” about the reaction to his photo, saying his daughters -– 3-year-old Amelia and 1-year-old Kylie -– “always bug me to paint my toenails. So I let them do it.”

While Amelia was painting each of his toenails a different color, Arrigo decided to play a video game.

“I was sitting with my kids playing,” he said, adding: “I know I wasn't staring right at my daughter … to say I was disconnected from my kids was odd to me.”

Some of commenters also ribbed on Arrigo for bending gender roles by allowing his toes to be painted.

"On Wednesday he goes shopping and has butter scones for tea," one wrote.

"It didn't bother me for a second," Arrigo said of all the negative comments. "It's my daughters. They love doing it and we're having a blast so why wouldn't I want do to that?"

Arrigo’s wife, Michelle, snapped the photo. She says she is not bothered by the negative comments.

“We both know we are good parents,” she said. “Just because people have bad ideas from it doesn't mean we are bad parents.”

Arrigo says the outcry won’t prevent him from allowing his daughters to paint his nails again.

“It's fine with me," Arrigo said. "It is pretty hard to get off though, so maybe I won't do it as frequently … some of it is still stuck on there."

Ericka Souter of the popular parenting blog TheStir.com said people have set ideas about what quality time should be.

“You can bend the rules with something different …,” Souter said. “You don't always have to play educational games for your kids to have good memories of being with you.”