Stay-at-Home Dad Survival Guide Best Dad Ever or Bad SAHD
Best Dad Ever or Bad SAHD
Friday, 19 December 2008 19:40
We've had snow here for the last few days which means plenty of snowballs and snow-fort building. It also means very little time to get any "work" done. There's almost no chance of finding a "real" job, during the holidays, and the pressure is only partially removed by the festivities.
Remember guys, the number one goal is to get a job. There's nothing like heading off to a day in an office populated by adults where you can perform the work you do best - and get paid for it.
However, what could be more fantastic than spending a few hours with your offspring out in the snow playing and building? Bittersweet thoughts of under-employment and the stress of the "adult" world are mostly offset by the look of joy on your child's face as a frozen project comes to fruition.
I tend to be cynical, which is one of the reasons why I often place words in "quotation marks" - what is real, what is legitimate, what are the most important things in your life? It's hard to avoid these questions when you're uncertain if you'll ever find a fulfilling/paying job again, and simultaneously doing that thing which everyone says is the most important thing in the world - spending time with your family and working to raise well-adjusted, happy children.
It's a gut-wrenching conundrum.
Especially when your kid looks at you, snowflakes stuck to hair, eyes agleam, red-cheeked and smiling, and says, "Dad, you're the best dad in the world."
I doubt it, I think to myself. If I were the best dad in the world, I'd have a job, I'd have health insurance, I'd have a good start on his college fund. Instead, I play with him in the snow.
No pithy summation to all this, it's just the way things are right now.