This article has some great ideas not just for us at-home parents, but for anyone who might be able to take a little more time to earn some side cash. Of course, number 10 is best way!! 🙂
Take a look and let me know if there’s anything you’ve done already or will give a try now.
10 Ways Stay-at-Home Moms and Dads Can Make Extra Money-Kiplinger.
More importantly, we/us/our family has survived a year having me as a stay-at-home dad. Nerves were high for all of us a year ago as my wife was returning to work from her maternity leave, and I was leaving work to stay home with our daughter, Avery.
It was obvious how unsure I was looking back at my first post from my first day at home. The world revolved around nap time and I heavily depended on Kelley’s breast milk soaked shirt laying in Avery’s crib to provide comfort and help with keeping her asleep.
Poor wife, I wouldn’t dare let her have that thing back for quite a while! On the second day, my confidence-o-meter was still in the negatives, as well as many subsequent days after.
If you checked out the links I provided from my first and second days as an at-home dad, you might notice a common theme that’s present with most parents, especially new ones; a difference in parenting styles. Yep, it’s a big one, and doesn’t matter if one is staying home or both are working, parents tend to disagree on one thing or another a miliion, and that’s just how it is.
Kelley and I still have our own ways of dealing with Avery and we’ll sometimes argue over how the other is handling a situation. Damn wife, she’s usually right (at least I admit it…..eventually), but sometimes I get the 1-up. Not often, but sure does feel good when I do! Parents, don’t you agree?
Fighting Arguments Quarrels Misunderstandings aside, Kelley and I make a great team and have learned a lot along the way. Is anyone ever done learning when so much is changing every day? In parenting and relationships, I vote NO! But that’s part of the fun, right? 🙂
In my year as a stay-at-home dad, I’ve made many mistakes and figure I’ll make many more. But from the ones I have made, I have learned and grew stronger as a result. For instance, babywearing, something we fully support and love in our home, took me a bit before realizing I was doing it wrong at first. I was wearing Avery all over with legs dangling and front facing.
As I shared on my post about Why I Wear My Baby, there are many studies showing the problems with a baby’s development when worn like this, especially the dangling legs!
And there are plenty more (I’m picturing my wife nodding her head as she reads this) mistakes that I’ll share in a separate post soon. Hopefully other parents, whether at-home or at-work, will learn from my mistakes and avoid making them their selves.
Today I want to call attention to making it an entire year with our arrangement and to express my deep, deep appreciation to my lovely wife, Kelley, for working so hard for our family. Some times are extremely hard with work, keeping up with breastfeeding, and dealing with an unruly husband (me!) and she is great at keeping everything together.
Kelley, I can’t thank you enough, and just want to say I love our life together and having such a crazy, yet sweet, daughter to raise with you.
Are you currently or can you remember being a parent to a baby/toddler?
What are some ways that you and your significant other pushed through the tunnel of stressful times to emerge from the other end, happy and sane? Okay, maybe a little crazy. 😉
According to a survey published by Yahoo.com, the rise in stay-at-home dads is expected to continue in 2015. And this is not just because dads can’t find work (23%), it’s because we WANT to stay home (21%) with the kids and we can do a damn good job at it too!
It’s true, check out this PEW Research Foundation report published back in June of 2014 for proof. Stay-at-home dads actually represent the biggest increase in those caring for family.
We may not be capable of breastfeeding (also a “Hot in 2015” trend), but we can handle every other aspect just as well in our own unique, fatherly way. More families see the female earning more than their male counterparts and just do better in a work environment.
I’m fortunate that this is the case in our family as Going Mom handles the work stress better than I did and I tend to handle the stay-at-home life stress better. Although it is stressful in both cases!
The very common and extremely annoying negative stereotypes of stay-at-home dads is decreasing every year, and with this survey, I’m hopeful it will continue it’s downward trend. Dads staying home only seems weird b/c it goes against what most of society has been raised to believe. Remember how smoking was “hot” (pun kind of intended) not many years ago? Yeah, that’s the power of society painting the image of how things “should be”.
As a member of several social media groups with other dads, I can proudly say at-home dads will continue to grow and we’ll snuff those negative views right in the sandbox where they belong!
The one downside to having more stay-at-home dads? A most likely increase in the number of kids telling corny jokes. Besides the jokes, dads do play an important role in a child’s development from newborn to college-bound, and that’s an extremely important role indeed!
Among the other parenting trends for 2015 is breastfeeding in public being more socially acceptable (as it should be!) and school lunch being highly debated even more than previous years. Breastfeeding and nutrition are of the utmost importance in our home and we value them dearly.
I can’t say it enough how proud and grateful I am that Going Mom is able to continue breastfeeding Avery past a year and can see our daughter’s healthfulness (and crazy energy) shining through each day.
What do you think about Yahoo’s survey? Please share your thoughts below as I’d love to hear your views.