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My kids are now off at school, so I’m no longer the stay-at-home dad I used to be, but…
this story resonated with me. As Frank Perdue used to say, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.” In the case of stay-at-home whatevers, it takes someone with endurance to handle the drudgery of baby routine punctuated by the magic moments. The following is from a stay-at-home dad’s experience as the “primary caregiver,” which he feels often leaves him the odd man out.
Does this sound like a rough day? Not necessarily, but that’s the point. Staying at home is a marathon, not a sprint. Stay-at-home moms need to string together months and years of such days. Their strength lies in their ability to store vast reserves of the energy, patience, resilience, and affection required to raise a child. Marathoners need a healthy heart, and so do stay-at-home moms.
[From Among the stay-at-home moms, a dad in disguise | csmonitor.com]
Here in San Francisco, when a man stays at home, or just shows up at all the school functions, everyone assumes he made a bundle in the internet boom and doesn’t have to work. Staying at home is looked on as a glorified form of sloth, reward for what may or may not have been a lot of hard work. For the rest of us, who have to make hard choices with our spouses on who is best positioned to work at a “real job,” it may end up feeling like a lucky reward, but it usually doesn’t start out that way on the first day.
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