Category Archives: Parenting

The First Thing I Do Every Day as a Stay-At-Home Dad

vacuum, cleaning, stay-at-home  parent
Use me, don’t abuse me.

Yep, I vacuum, after peeing of course. What, were you expecting some inspirational or motivational task that maybe you could add to your routine?

Sorry if so, but vacuuming should be a part of any household with pets and kids scurrying across the floor. I’ll admit, I was hair-phobic long before we had Avery and would vacuum almost every day already. But now that I’m at home, I feel it my duty to prepare the floors for Avery to crawl run around without collecting gobs of cat or dog hair in the process.

Seeing a cluster of hair whisk across our wood floors sends my already elevated cortisol levels through the roof! To ease everyone’s panic (i.e. just mine) I’m quick to bust out the vacuum for that one cluster and rid the house of its evil.

And then, even if I had just vacuumed, I might as well keep going “just in case” to make sure we’re safe. That is, until the cat comes out for food or our dog wags her tail.

I’m currently averaging a full vacuum twice a day with one first thing in the morning and another mid-afternoon. I don’t “get” to vacuum as much on the weekends because my wife yells at me for being too obsessive. What? Me, OCD? Nahhhhh. Okay, Yahhhhh.

Admittedly, the second one is partly for the crumbs I dropped while cooking meals for all of us and from Avery spitting her food out. Sometimes, pretending she’s a kitty doesn’t even get her to keep the food in her mouth!

No Dad, how about YOU be the kitty this time.
No Dad, how about YOU be the kitty this time.

Either way, one of the animals, real or pretend, create a need for me vacuum a second (sometimes even a third or fourth) time for the day. I can’t pinpoint exactly when my aversion to pet hair started since we used to have a husky named Rocky who would sit on the couch with us and I was just fine. Loved that dog……and our cat, Gus.

In Timeout
In Timeout

I think it began around the same time I started getting really into healthy food choices and cooking more instead of going out to eat. Handling food more often means I need to keep my hands clean and free of hair, so it only seems logical. At least to me it does.

Anyway, most mornings I start my day with a nice run of the vacuum to capture loose hair, litter, food, and whatever else lays in the path of the almighty vacuum!

I suck.
I suck.

After that, Avery has a wonderfully clean floor (yeah right) to run around on as I go about doing my second (and third and fifth) thing I do every day; cook. The fourth being exercise, duh.

Ummm, dad, you missed a spot.
Ummm, dad, you missed a spot.

Do you have a daily routine/habit/OCD tendency?

How do you feel about pet hair? My mom (G-Ma) and Kelley are just fine with it, so I’m alone with this aversion around here.

I Survived the 1st Year As a Stay-At-Home Dad!

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.

babies, nap time, sleeping, parenting

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.

Too cool for school...or anything.
Too cool for school…or anything.

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. 😉