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Written by Jeff Mathes
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As a stay-at-home parent there is one time of the year that I can truly appreciate and that’s back to school. After about three months of having the kids at home, there is nothing quite as wonderful as those first few days of freedom when I can drop everyone off and head off to the bookstore for a little bit of me time (ok so I have a toddler hanging around).
Naturally, this is a feeling that doesn’t last forever, but I feel like I can finally catch up on a lot of projects that were left behind. It also means that I can focus on other things besides breaking up fights and coming up with activities to keep kids busy. After a few weeks of this, I will probably miss having them home, but after a four-day weekend that feeling will go away.
One piece of advice though – don’t get caught up in sitting around doing nothing when they go back to school. This can become very frustrating to your partner and create problems (remember the movie Mr. Mom) in your marriage. It’s important to maintain balance in everything you do.
This also goes for volunteering at the school. Once other parents hear that I am a stay-at-home father, I get calls for everything. They just love having fathers available to help out with different projects from scouting to teacher’s helper.
I am very careful to balance what I do during the day. I do still have a toddler that gets to hang out with me so that keeps me from doing many activities, but I still try to stay involved. I don’t let other parents take advantage of the fact that I stay home because let’s face it, I still have a lot to do as well. I have five kids to take care of and that takes a lot of time.
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Why is then when I call you are always taking a nap. Must be nice