Father’s Day is this weekend. Consumer research paints a surprisingly honest picture of the American dad who uses cannabis: more open about it than moms, more likely to have used it his whole life, and stressed out by a very different set of things. Here’s what the data actually says, and why it matters.

There is a particular silence that a lot of American dads carry around. Not the dramatic kind. The everyday kind. The silence of a guy who gets up before the sun, works a long day, comes home to a list of things that need fixing, lies awake at night doing math on the mortgage, and tells everyone he’s fine because telling everyone he’s fine is most of the job description. American fatherhood, for a huge number of men, is a sustained exercise in absorbing pressure and not talking about it. The stress is real. The outlet options are limited. And the cultural permission to admit any of it out loud has historically been close to zero.

Which is what makes the consumer research on cannabis-using dads genuinely interesting, especially heading into Father’s Day. The data, pulled from cannabis consumer insights research, paints a picture of American fathers that runs against a few stereotypes and lands somewhere more honest. The dad who uses cannabis is, on average, more open about it than the mom who does. He’s more likely to have used it consistently throughout his life. And the things that stress him out are not the things you might assume.

This Father’s Day, it’s worth taking a real look at that picture. Not because every dad uses cannabis. Plenty don’t, and that’s their call. But because the data tells a story about how American fathers actually carry stress, what they’re willing to be honest about, and how the conversation around cannabis and fatherhood has quietly matured into something a lot less taboo than it was a generation ago.

Dads Are More Open About It Than Moms

Here’s the finding that jumps out first. Among cannabis-using parents, about 85 percent agree that it’s important to be open and honest with their children. But when it comes to actually following through on that openness, dads and moms split. Only about half of cannabis-using mothers say their kids are aware of their cannabis use. For fathers, that number jumps to over 60 percent. Dads are simply more likely to let their kids know that weed is part of their lives.

There are a few reasons this probably tracks. The research found that cannabis-using dads are significantly more likely than moms to have used cannabis consistently throughout their lives, 59 percent versus 42 percent. For a lot of these fathers, cannabis isn’t a recent addition to the routine. It’s been part of their identity since long before they had kids. When something has been part of who you are for decades, hiding it from your own children starts to feel less like discretion and more like dishonesty. The openness isn’t recklessness. It’s consistency catching up with values.

It’s also worth noting that this openness is happening in a country where the cultural and legal ground has shifted dramatically. The plant that a generation of fathers had to hide entirely is now sold in regulated stores, discussed on mainstream wellness blogs, and increasingly treated as a normal part of adult life. Even traditional institutions have adjusted. The U.S. Army’s easing of marijuana-related enlistment restrictions is one piece of a broader shift that has made it considerably easier for an American dad to be honest with his kids about something that, twenty years ago, would have been a closely guarded secret.

What Actually Stresses Out Cannabis-Using Dads

This is the part of the data that says the most about American fatherhood. When cannabis-using mothers were asked about their biggest stressors, they listed their children first, followed by lack of sleep, then illness or injury. The mom stress profile is dominated by the people she’s caring for and the physical toll of caring for them.

The dad profile looks completely different. When cannabis-using fathers were asked the same question, 42 percent listed money as one of their biggest stressors. Work came second at 31 percent. Lack of sleep came third at 22 percent. And children? Only 18 percent of fathers listed their kids in their top three stressors at all.

This is not because dads love their kids less. It’s because the pressure lands differently. The research points to a familiar dynamic. Even as more mothers than ever remain in the workforce, women still shoulder the majority of the emotional labor and day-to-day child-rearing inside most families, which is why their kids show up as their number one stressor. Fathers, meanwhile, are still carrying the cultural weight of the breadwinner role, the expectation that providing financially is the core of the job, which is why money and work dominate their stress profile. The kids are the joy. The money is the weight. For a lot of American dads, that’s the whole equation.

Understanding this changes how you read the cannabis-using dad. He is not, by and large, reaching for cannabis to deal with his children. He’s reaching for it to deal with the financial pressure, the work grind, and the sleep he’s not getting because he’s lying awake thinking about the financial pressure and the work grind. The stress is structural. It comes from the role itself. And cannabis, for a lot of these fathers, is one of the few tools they’ve found that takes the edge off without requiring them to talk about any of it out loud.