BellaOnline Forums Family Work & Family Dad staying at home?

Vannie,

I just read your new article on dad staying at home. I recently read about such a father in my local newspaper. He was thrilled with his decision. He gave up his career when he and his wife realized that between day care and travel costs he had very little of his salary left. They decided he could make more of a difference in his children's lives by being at home with them.

His kids and wife love it. His wife can spend more quality time with the kids when she gets home and the kids love having a parent there when they get home. For the first year, he even dressed up every day to meet the kids at the bus stop. Interestingly, he says that at the bus stop there are more men to talk with then women.

I just wanted to tell this so that any men and their families considering this move can take heart from someone else's experience. Being a stay-at-home dad can truly enrich the lives of your kids and yourself.

Sandra, my younger brother and his wife did this. Her mother was furious--but it worked for them. He was a stay at home with their two children. Both boys, now men with children of their own, are amazingly well-adjusted, never in trouble and all around good guys.

I'm new to this website, having been recruited by Nick Marshall of Caribbean Culture, and interviewed by him as a blogger living in the region. My blog has no photos, but plenty of opinions on a wide variety of topics - one of which is "On being a housefather", which I posted in October 2013. [para] I did the job for five years, with our son and only child between the ages of six and eleven. I hadn't wanted a child, and had a lot of trouble adjusting our comfortable lifestyle to his presence. Luckily, he had charm enough to captivate me entirely, so that I jumped at the opportunity to stay home and be the "parent of first resort" when both parents working became too stressful. It was the best job I ever had, and I cherish every memory. (You'd think I could have done better than a lousy 600-word essay on the subject, but apparently not!) [para] EVERY man should do it, if the family finances can bear it.

Hi Gordon,

My husband actually became a stay-at-home dad, but not by choice. He actually had an accident at work (fell off of his cement truck fender cleaning the windows as he was directed,) however, 3 herniated discs later he ended up at home for around 3 years.


We have identical twin girls who are now 11 - at the time we lived in a neighborhood where they had lots of friends at 6 years old. Our house was always full of kids, either staying for lunch, sleeping over or just hanging out on the grass. It takes a lot of supervision and organization to multi-task kids of all ages and all at once. LOL

Once he got in the swing of it he really did a great job. All of the kids loved him. However, cleaning tasks and laundry kind of didn't fit in most times - but the most important thing was the welfare and happiness of the kids, so needing clean underwear could wait until I got home.

My regards to your husband, Allyson. I'm sure some of the incidents I wrote about will ring a bell with him. Including the inability to do household chores while minding children. (Male DNA doesn't stop us SEEING the dust and rubbish; it just stops us from regarding it as important!) I'm sure too that all househusbands can identify with my experience at the A & E room at the hospital, when I walked in with a little boy whose face was all swollen. Oh, the silence! I was imagining a hangman's noose being prepared somewhere, though I never saw it.