One of the best parenting compliments I ever received was being mistaken for a Stay at Home Dad.
SAHD’s (crummy acronym, no?) certainly rock, but I am not one. My wife is a Work at Home Mom, but I am a very traditional Work at Work Dad.
What it all boils down to is that I’ve got a not-quite 10-month-old little girl at home and I need to cram as much daddy-daughter time into the day as possible. Babe-O and I have a few standing dates that I pretty much refuse to miss:
Lunch date. Lunch is kind of like a NASCAR pit stop for me. Jump in the car, zoom home, shovel food into baby, zoom back to work. I can usually make the round trip in an hour, unless there’s a caution flag (projectile vomit, explosive diaper, or Mom-O really needs a break).
Dinner date. Dinner is a family tradition. Babe-O’s high chair goes right next to my recliner and we share a TV tray in front of whatever crap sitcom happens to be on, just like the pilgrims did (more takeout, less smallpox). The TV is obviously a bad habit, but generally speaking, I watch her and she watches me, except when distracted by pretty much any commercial with hip-hop in it. Baby loves Biggie, what can I say?
Bath date. When Babe-O was tiny, she did basically three things: slept, nursed, pooped, ignored her dad. So from the get-go bath time was my thing. If nothing else, I got to see her then. To this day, I think I’ve only missed one or two baths with her. It’s usually a good time. She sits in her bath seat, I talk about whatever comes to mind, and we play with squirty toys. The goal is to wash the baby each night, but we call it a success as long as I don’t drop my phone in the water and she doesn’t drink the conditioner.
Late date. All three of us sleep through the night pretty consistently these days, but if Babe-O does end up awake for some reason, I go and get her. Usually we just pace back and forth for a while and she goes right back to sleep. This used to take HOURS, but that’s because she wanted to nurse and I was a consistent disappointment in that department. Now she seems to understand that she can’t get blood from a stone and just goes back to sleep. Not only do I get to hang with my girl in her especially loveable sleepy state, but I get to sport that classic bleary-eyed-dad look at the office, which often leads to free coffee from coworkers.
I guess the moral of the story is that it’s better to stay up all night working (current time 1:33 a.m.) than pass up an opportunity to hang with the baby. The parenting magazines and SuperNanny seem to agree that kids grow up fast and it’d be easy to miss out on a lot during those ages that are measured in months instead of years.
Sincerely,
Milkin’ it for all it’s worth in PA
Josh (@Dad_O) is a professional communicator/blogger/dad . Check him out at www.daddydoesmyhair.blogspot.com.
SAHD’s (crummy acronym, no?) certainly rock, but I am not one. My wife is a Work at Home Mom, but I am a very traditional Work at Work Dad.
What it all boils down to is that I’ve got a not-quite 10-month-old little girl at home and I need to cram as much daddy-daughter time into the day as possible. Babe-O and I have a few standing dates that I pretty much refuse to miss:
Lunch date. Lunch is kind of like a NASCAR pit stop for me. Jump in the car, zoom home, shovel food into baby, zoom back to work. I can usually make the round trip in an hour, unless there’s a caution flag (projectile vomit, explosive diaper, or Mom-O really needs a break).
Dinner date. Dinner is a family tradition. Babe-O’s high chair goes right next to my recliner and we share a TV tray in front of whatever crap sitcom happens to be on, just like the pilgrims did (more takeout, less smallpox). The TV is obviously a bad habit, but generally speaking, I watch her and she watches me, except when distracted by pretty much any commercial with hip-hop in it. Baby loves Biggie, what can I say?
Bath date. When Babe-O was tiny, she did basically three things: slept, nursed, pooped, ignored her dad. So from the get-go bath time was my thing. If nothing else, I got to see her then. To this day, I think I’ve only missed one or two baths with her. It’s usually a good time. She sits in her bath seat, I talk about whatever comes to mind, and we play with squirty toys. The goal is to wash the baby each night, but we call it a success as long as I don’t drop my phone in the water and she doesn’t drink the conditioner.
Late date. All three of us sleep through the night pretty consistently these days, but if Babe-O does end up awake for some reason, I go and get her. Usually we just pace back and forth for a while and she goes right back to sleep. This used to take HOURS, but that’s because she wanted to nurse and I was a consistent disappointment in that department. Now she seems to understand that she can’t get blood from a stone and just goes back to sleep. Not only do I get to hang with my girl in her especially loveable sleepy state, but I get to sport that classic bleary-eyed-dad look at the office, which often leads to free coffee from coworkers.
I guess the moral of the story is that it’s better to stay up all night working (current time 1:33 a.m.) than pass up an opportunity to hang with the baby. The parenting magazines and SuperNanny seem to agree that kids grow up fast and it’d be easy to miss out on a lot during those ages that are measured in months instead of years.
Sincerely,
Milkin’ it for all it’s worth in PA
Josh (@Dad_O) is a professional communicator/blogger/dad . Check him out at www.daddydoesmyhair.blogspot.com.
5 Comments:
Thanks for your kind words! I love hearing from you.