SAHD

A week ago, American Family posted about the security and being a Stay-At-Home Mom. It was an interesting post and made me think I should write a little about our plans for child care when Kit comes home.

Jill is the bread-winner in our household. For while when we were struggling more I was actually making a little more, but since Jill finished grad school, she's been making what we both use to make combined. Add in her benefits and it only makes sense for her to stay at work when the baby comes home (luckily her schedule gives her summers off, a few weeks of vacation during the rest of the year and no late nights).

This means at the very least, I'm going to be a part-time Stay-At-Home Dad, and depending on how things work out, maybe full-time. I have mixed feelings about this. Well, maybe not quite mixed - about ninety-five perscent of me is excited about the idea of being home and taking care of Kit. The other five percent is self-conscious about not bringing home the bacon and a little worried about the idea of not having any income of my own. The SAHD thing isn't completely alien to me. My dad occassionally stayed home with us kids when work was scarce and my mom was the one with the reliable income and benefits. The difference was my dad did work that he hated for years to help support the family, while that small part of me feels like I'll just be slacking off if I don't have a paying job. Of course I realize taking care of Kit is going to be a full-time job in itself, but there's a little old-fashioned male guilt playing in my head too.