Since becoming an at-home Dad, I have taken it upon myself to save money by doing things around the house for which I would have previously hired a professional. I am now considering several home improvement projects. The first was installing new toilets.

Improving one's home by one's self should be carefully measured. From my days as the service manager at my family's garage, one concept stands out: it is one thing to change a part, it is another to diagnose a problem and then repair to solve that problem. ... read more >>

The Northwestern has just published an article on the rising numbers of Stay-At-Home-Fathers written by Sarah Olson.

In her article she reports some interesting figures from the 2006 US Census:

* 26.4 million fathers are part of married-couple families with children 18 or younger

* 143'000 married fathers of children 15 or younger called parenthood their primary job and remained out of the workforce one year or more.

While the numbers are rising Olson also points out that there is still a social stigma attached to being a stay-at-home-father.

Read the full article here.

-Stef

WHEN A HEAD-BUTT SAYS I LOVE YOU

This morning at 6.45am, not long after we'd finished reading The Chicken Chickens Go To School and James had polished off his bottle, he sat up in bed, smiled and head-butted me right on the nose. I cried out in equal parts shock and pain. It hurt! The look of surprise and remorse on James’s face quickly gave way to protracted wailing. It was clear in his mind this was not the reaction he expected from me.

The head-butt is a recent phenomenon. Previous efforts have been ill-timed, glancing blows off the side of my leg and once or twice our dog Chili has been on the receiving end of James' advancing forehead. I've put it down to an extension of the rough'n tumble play that we were engaging in at the time, accidental collisions as opposed to full on skull warfare. But this morning was different. There had been no roughing or indeed tumbling. We'd just been reading a book. Cuddling in bed, y'know those quiet bonding moments that we parents wish there were more of. But the smile, the force of the blow and the look of shock on his face lead me irrevocably to the conclusion that the head-butt was in fact premeditated; an extension of our bonding session. A short, sharp and painful way for James to say I love you when words, or a hug are simply not enough. ... read more >>

Let’s face it, running a business from home while looking after the kids is an ongoing juggling act.

I’m fortunate enough to have my own home-based business, which I work in part-time. It is a catalogue shopping company specialising in products that are safer for families and the environment. I don’t take any orders, make any deliveries or do any billings. I simply set up my customers’ accounts, and whenever they purchase product it is couriered direct to their doorstep, and I receive a commission. Sounds bliss doesn’t it? ... read more >>

Here are a few things to consider.

1. Don't get life insurance for your baby
There is no need for it and if someone tries to sell it to you they are taking advantage of your emotions. One rule of life insurance - get it only if the loss of the insured person would have a financial impact on the surviving family members. ... read more >>

This is a comment about stay at home dads posted by Larry:

A stay at home dad is living off his wife's income, right? So I don't believe it's fair for a single man without kids to pay taxes, especially if the single man gets laid off from his job and earns a low income for the year. The cost of living is very high in Madison, WI and the single man should keep the money he earns. I will contact a senator and congressman about this.

THE LONG DRIVE

My family and I recently had the occasion to drive most of the length of the North Island, returning home from visiting the relatives. It was a landmark journey - the first long haul car trip undertaken with James, whose toddlerish exuberance is still peaking.

Toddlers aren't meant to sit down for extended periods of time - it is hotwired into their developing brains to runjumpbouncecrawlswingplayshout, not sitsitsitsitsit. So the aim of the game was keeping the small person happy and by extension, us. This wasn’t just pure altruism at work either; we wanted to get to the end in one piece. Avoiding minor catastrophes in the back seat was going a long way towards avoiding a major catastrophe on the road. So we thought it out, took all those incremental lessons learnt from short trips and rolled them together into one big ball of diversionary tactics designed to get the most out of the journey for James and us. Here's what we learnt: ... read more >>

Road Trips with small children are a trying time for anyone especially a little girl, and being that we travelled in the middle of the day didn’t help either. I took a trip with Pyper which should take the average person around 7 hours at the most took us 9.5 hours, now taking her in the car was a tricky thing being that she would be in her capsule for all but around 2.5 hours of the travel. It felt like the longest 2 days of my life to be honest! Things just took a lot longer than normal. ... read more >>

THE MOWER FIXATION

My son James has many fun-triggers - people, activities, toys, filmed entertainment, food - that get him excited. Some of these things are fleeting, mere flings, flights of fancy in his busy life. Some things last longer, reach peaks of enjoyment and then taper away. And some things are hot wired into his remarkable little brain to such an extent that he exhibits Steve Austin-like powers of perception where they are concerned. There is no tapering, no fling, these are the love stories of his toddlerdom.

One such love affair is with the humble lawn mower. The gravitational pull of this mild-mannered grass cutting implement is at its most powerful around my trusty Masport. When I'm mowing the lawn nothing else on earth exists except the dribble down the front of his jumper as he watches me slack jawed through the window. ... read more >>

BALLOONS

You can read all the books, take the advice, put in the hours, be the parent of the year and out of the blue something comes along to challenge everything you think you know about your child and how to handle their temperament. Toddler mood swings, assertions of independence, discovery of the outside world - all that stuff can be handled, it has a certain logic to it. For my 2 and a half year old son James, logic gets it coat and strides off into the night however, where balloons are concerned. Yes, balloons. The merest sight of a fully blown balloon reduces James to heaving sobs, streaming snot and tearful cries of "I want to go home!" He is inconsolable. Soothing whispers, bribery, toughing it out - nothing works.

It started innocently enough at a birthday party we attended around a year ago. Much to my horror a clown had been arranged. I'll come out and say that I'm not a great fan of clowns. The sight of a paunchy middle aged man with a three day beard and a polka dot shirt pulling plastic flowers out of his comedy trousers is not the kind of humour I think children should be subjected to. You don't see The Wiggles resorting to clown tricks to get the laughs. Bob The Builder doesn't have a clown friend. Anyway, back to the birthday party clown. James was quite enjoying the display of water-squirting flowers and disappearing handkerchiefs until the clown started making balloon animals. At the sound of the balloons squeaking and rubbing together poor James lost it completely. No sooner had his face creased in worry, he was at Mach 10 crying and trying to bury his face in my armpit. We had to leave. At the time I put it down to a combination of clown antics and balloon-noise. Incident forgotten. ... read more >>