re: Thoughts on stay at home Dads

If I ever was in a situation which called for being a stay at home dad, I think that, while fulfilling on some level, I would constantly struggle with feelings of inadequacy on another. This is probably due to societal mores regarding a man's place within the nuclear family construct, but it would be there nonetheless. At the end of the day none of that would matter as much as how my wife would really feel about me staying at home. Because, like it or not, she is under, even on a subconscious level, the same social mores regarding the ideal family dynamic.

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Times have changed. A lot of guys can work from home. They can do consulting work, work as a freelancer, etc.

If the woman is the primary breadwinner or even has the best insurance, it makes financial sense for the Dad to stay home.

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Yep. My wife already makes a little more money than me and I currently do consulting work, sometimes from home. We've already talked about if she were to get a large raise at what point would it be worth it for me to still consult, but work less (20ish hours/week) and essentially stay home. Would be two issues: 1) the discipline to still get work done, and 2) the discipline to turn down work and contracts.

I am now a stay at home dad. Before I worked in the banking industry for over 15 years. We are both in our 40's and have a 3 year old daughter. We recently moved to KC for a promotion my wife received. We have no family around and decided that instead of having our daughter in day care all day long like she was doing in Houston, it would be better if I stayed at home. We are fortunate that my wife's company pays a ton, and thus I can stay at home. It has been an adjustment to say the least, but having done it now for the past 10 months I wouldn't change a thing. My daughter does go to school, but is only in it until about 3:00. This summer she stayed home with me and we had a ball. The other day she asked me when it was gonna be summer again so she could stay home with me, that made my day.

I do miss the office and interacting with my co-workers some, I do not miss the corporate BS. I will soon begin to do some work out of our home, but will allow me to be flexible so I can be there for my daughter.

If you are the type of person that worries about what other people think, then you were probably a wuss to begin with and you wouldn't be able to handle it. Otherwise I highly recommend it if you have the chance.

I know a guy who does this. His wife is a successful doctor. They have 3 sons. He doesn't seem to mind at all.

I couldn't go full time stay at home dad. I could, however, start a small business that gave me flexible hours for the kids.

Its not genetically wired in me to allow myself to slip into the ether of not being able to provide to a family and relying on someone else to give me economic mobility.

Id rather die than not have a job. It's quite obvious a lot of folks are going to disagree with me or call it backwards old school, but men are hunter/gatherers.

I gotta hunt.

I'm scheduled to work 9-12 days/mo., and lately they usually call and tell me not to come in half the time, been this way for a while, no kids at home though