Initial Observations of a Stay at Home Dad

The kids are out of school for winter break during my first week of full time parenthood which is weird because it feels more like a week vacation than my new gig as a SAHD (stay at home dad). We have 2 apartments rented out and we’re in the triplex so we’re in quiet mode. We ended up staying in 3 different places over the course of the week so we didn’t have much food in the house which meant we got to go to Wendy’s twice, an unusual occurrence for us. I finished a book (A Walk In The Woods by Bill Bryson) that I’m reading for a new book club podcast called “Book Club Bro” which I hope to start soon with my brother Andy. We also found the next book for our podcast — Utopia for Realists by Rutger Bregman. I did pick up on a few observations over the course of the week. I noticed these things before but they stood out distinctly to me now that this was the new job…

Observation 1: Simple things are really hard. Walking down the sidewalk. Being cooped up in a 1200 sq. ft. apartment with 4 kids because it’s raining is tough. Having a conversation about why a 2 year old can’t stomp and scream is both futile and frustrating. Parenting has more to do with controlling yourself than your kids and I seem to have very little self-control…apparently.

Observation 2: Response from kids is immediate. More eye contact, more smiles, happier. Or maybe I’m just noticing it more. Either way it’s great. Kids’ rating: I got 2 thumbs up and one thumbs down (that later turned into a thumbs sideways). Sarah seems pretty happy too. This has as much to do with me not thinking about work as it does with me not having full access to a cell phone since my phone went with the job. More on this later…

Observation 3: Not spending money is tough but a fun challenge. We have a lot of work to do to fill our time without spending money.