Dads – Stay Home or Work Outside the Home

The stay home dads seem to be well represented and encouraged on the Internet. A fairly large percentage of the more popular dad blogs that I read seem to be written by dads who stay home. There seems to be a deficit of encouragement specifically for dads who work outside the home.  Even harder to find is encouragement in blogs for dads who work outside the home while mom stays home.

This blog will help fill in that gap. We will provide encouragement for all dads in terms of parenting tips, finances, family fun, marriage, but will provide an extra dose of encouragement for dads who work outside the home.  To take things a step further we will help encourage dads who desire to be the sole bread winners of their families so that mom can be provided the best opportunity to stay home with the children. There are few things more discouraging for a young couple than having a desire to allow mom to stay home but being stuck in circumstances that just will not allow for this to happen.  Allowing mom the opportunity to stay home is a great goal and there is hope to make it happen.

My wife and I both graduated college and entered the workforce as a two-income household. We originally (before children) planned on her going back to work after maternity leave.  Our plans changed and we are glad they did. But we were not prepared for the change in plans…especially from a financial perspective. As this blog unfolds I will share some of our challenges in transitioning from a two-income household to a single income household.

Marriage

First things first.  While this site is all about life as a daddy, I will paraphrase in daddy terms what my good friend Gary Ezzo says to moms in his Preparation for Parenting series, “You will only be as good of a daddy as you are a husband.”  We dads cannot forget how important our commitment to our marriage is. One of the greatest gifts you as a dad can give your children is to love your wife.  Parents need to teach their kids what healthy relationships look like and there is no better place to begin than by demonstrating an unconditional love for the mother of your children. Through this process you will gain respect and honor from your wife as well as your children.

There are many ways to demonstrate love towards your wife.  You can certainly tell your wife that you love her, but little kids in particular tend to understand better by seeing than by hearing. So don’t wait until the kids are in bed to demonstrate your love toward your wife. We have devoted the first post of this blog to marriage. You will receive an abundance of tips on growing and maintaining a healthy marriage as this blog matures.