Luckiest Man Alive

As I have said before, I am finding out quickly that being a stay at home parent is not as easy as it had seemed before I started spending more time at home. There is so much than can happen in the course of one day, and very rarely will a day go the way I hope it will. Sure, we plan out a nice evening walk before bath and bedtime. But we don’t plan the trip off of the curb, the busted knee, the sudden rain, Read More...

We are a one car, three bike, one trailer family

Towards the end of the summer our family moved out of the shared three story, five bedroom house we were living in with another family and into a much smaller place closer to our four year old’s new pre-school. No longer living with friends meant that the free childcare we had enjoyed was gone, as well as the use of the extra cars. Since we are a one car family we had to figure out how best to get the boys t Read More...

A NEW PHENOMENON, THE STAY AT HOME DAD

“Stay at home dad” used to be an embarrassing phrase.  But, as more and more families cope with the rising cost of daycare and the high unemployment rate, more families are opting to leave egos aside and let the higher earner of the home stay at work while the other spouse brings in the money to support the family.  These days the high earner could just as easily be the mom, leaving the dad to take care of th Read More...

Competing with the kids for attention

5:30 is anticipated in this house like nothing else. There are other important times in the day that have more weight with the boys like lunch and nap time. When we need to leave for school, or to go back and pick Primo up is another closely watched time but 5:30 is when Beautiful comes home. That is the time that it is no longer me against the kids. I have an advocate, a team mate, a colleague, and they do too. W Read More...

Is this the real life, or is this just fantasy

Five weeks into the NFL season and my Fantasy Football team is already tanking it to get a high draft pick. I don’t know why I do it every year when I am not that big a fan of football but each Fall bring the promise of glory. The sport I really love is Basket ball and with preseason games in full swing for the NBA and I couldn’t be more excited. I am one of a handful of NBA fans still left in the world Read More...

A little whining from the token SAHD

Juggling three kids is not an easy task and I want some respect for it damit. Now this isn’t going to be one of those “nobody respects the stay at home dad” whining sessions but I’m getting a little cranky with the judgements. Last night we were at the library for story time. They have this time where kids can come in their jammies and have a story, sing some songs, and play a game or two. I Read More...

Even the Stay at home dads need balance

When we started this blog there were three stay at home dads in the Revolution but now that the dust has settled a bit I find I am the only one still going. I feel like I need to stand strong and represent the cause in a sea of great working dads, but at the same time the numbers seem a bit more balanced. While there are more and more men staying at home to raise the kids, whether by choice or necessity, the number Read More...

Beating the heat in the city – Water Fountains

Even in the NorthWest we get some hot days. I know it’s hard to believe, what with the reputation of never ending rainy days and tall evergreen tress but we are at the beginning of 90 degree temperatures like the NorthEast. When the weather warms up like this the boys and I go out in search of water to cool ourselves down. There are a number of great pools in Portland but when it is just me and three kids a p Read More...

On the road with toddlers

Last Summer Beautiful and I set off on a road trip with our three year old and one and half year old sons, from Portland, Oregon to Indianapolis, Indiana. We needed to get back to the house we owned in Indy to turn it over for our new tenants and we also needed to get out of town for a little vacation. The thought of driving 36 hours in a small car with small children is enough to inspire night terrors in the bes Read More...

Sharing the love: Living Room Forts

Before heading out to the boat that would take us off shore we had to go over some safety issues first. How to get in and out of a basket for helicopter rescue and how to swing on a rope. Now I understood the basket rescue part, but didn’t know why maneuvering a rope swing was necessary for life out on the platform. Would we be swinging around like Tarzan from deck to deck? We made the thirty minute ride f Read More...

Sounding off -The media’s perspective of Stay at home parents

Okay, I was just reading through an email I received from HAPO  – Help A Reporter Out.  The email lists numerous stories that reporters are writing and need some input on. It appears to be a great resource. Well today I ran across a story that someone was writing on moms who are leaving the work force to stay home with their children.  This is a great topic because there are a lot of families making the de Read More...

The Revolution will not be televised, but it will be tweeted

I remember the first job I ever had mowing the neighbors lawn and cleaning out stables where they kept two horses. I was 10 and the work was hard but the money was great, I was living large getting all the candy and soda I wanted. From about that age on I have worked in one field or another from working the counter at the local Baseball Card shop to working off shore pressure testing welds on oil derricks in the P Read More...

Dad Revolution: A fatherhood manifesto

April 4 of 2009 was all at once the happiest, most exciting and anxiety-producing day of my life. It was the happiest because I got to fall in love instantly with my beautiful daughter Tessa. It was the most exciting because I waited nine months to finally meet her, hold her and tell her how much I love her. It was the most anxiety-producing because now that Tessa was here, I was a father for real now. I was a firs Read More...

The Dad Revolution Begins…

When I volunteered to go first here at Dad Revolution, I was really just making up for all those times I slouched deeper into my chair to avoid being called on at school. I figured now that I am an adult – a father and husband to boot – it’s time for me to start taking on more responsibility. I never imagined a few months ago that I would be swept up by this revolution, but just a short time later I am th Read More...