More Dads Take Stay-At-Home Route

WFTV ^ | 2/22/05 | Internet Broadcasting Systems

[qam1]

More Men Go From Boardroom To Playroom

ANNANDALE, Va. -- The job comes without a paycheck. The hours are long. The rewards can be priceless.

It's not something you put on your resume, but millions of men have decided to give up their careers and become stay-at-home dads, Washington, D.C., television station WRC reported.

Some mothers may resent the attention to stay-at-home dads, since they've been doing it for centuries.

But the station looked at the growing trend because it's a option many couples may not have explored.

This is about children, parents and a difficult choice.

That choice was the subject of the popular 1983 comedy "Mr. Mom." In that movie, a laid-off engineer stays home with his three kids while his wife returns to work.

It's fiction becoming a fact of life for a growing number of couples.

Chip and Heather Covell of Annandale made the decision eight months ago. As a special education teacher, Chip needed a break. Meanwhile, his wife's teaching career was taking off.

According to the latest U.S. Census figures, 3.6 million men stay home while their wives work. That's a 54 percent increase since 1986.

Human resource experts say the numbers will continue to climb.

"The so-called Generation X and Generation Y workforce are a little more open to the concept of staying at home and a spouse, in this case a wife, earning more than the husband," human resources manager Steven Williams said.

Damon Riley's wife is the vice president of a marketing firm. Staying home meant giving up his job as director of new student orientation at Georgetown University.

"Her salary was probably more than twice mine at the time, anyway. And having somebody come to the house was going to cost us almost all of my salary," Riley said.

Riley has been staying home since his twin daughters were born seven years ago.

Mothers in their Olney, Md., neighborhood are supportive.

"He's just one of the girls. No offense, Damon, but he's just one of us," stay-at-home mom Sophie Stopak said.

But fitting in can be difficult. That's where a group called DC Metro Dads comes in. The Bowie, Md., chapter meets every Monday.

"It gives us a network of other men, we get to sit around and talk about guy things," one of the dads said.

The couples told WRC that they began by doing the math. They compared child-care costs with the loss of one salary, and decided it was worth the sacrifice.

[big'ol_freeper]

Hmmmm...

[lowbridge]

All Men Are Created Equal-Thomas Jefferson

Take a good close look at his posting history, and see the pattern.

[Bushforlife]

Weenie boys.

[LizardQueen]

Whatever produces the most time with the kids and still pays the bills, that's what you should do.

Bingo. With today's chaotic workplace you never know who is going to get axed tommorrow. Best to stay flexible and do what you've got to do to get by.

I know lots of couples who take turns staying home with the kids - she takes leave, he takes leave, then one of them gets laid off, the other gets laid off, one goes back to work, etc in a rotating pattern.

Face it, people - the "Ward 'n June Cleaver" lifetime employment workplace where one salary is very reliable and sufficient is no more, so it follows that the Ward 'n June Cleaver home life is on its way out. It's tough to keep a rigid and traditional home structure with people getting axed every year or two. Some can do it but more can't.

LQ

[hope]

People are getting real trigger happy around here. Who's toes did "Red State Voter" step on to get banned? Was it the one that's quoted above.

[Indie]

Too bad many wives who complain, on the one hand about not being able to work, then turn around and get jealous because the stay at home dad doesn't have to [in her mind.] You can not win with women nor could I with my EX wife.

[LibertarianInExile]

Which generation was yours, exactly? Your post seems so nuanced and subtle and learned. May we sit at your feet and hear you lecture about the good works of your great generation? Please, couldn't those self-absorbed brats in Generation X learn from the wisest of your generation--you?

Educate us, oh great sage.

/sarcasm

[savedbygrace]

Yeah, so self-absorbed that they are willing to give up their own career for their kid's sake.

See, it's still all about them . . . their career, their kids.

[savedbygrace]

Wouldn't be prudent, would it?

[lowbridge]

People are getting real trigger happy around here. Who's toes did "Red State Voter" step on to get banned? Was it the one that's quoted above.

I cant believe the naivete of some people. Its not a matter of stepping on peoples toes. He was playing up the liberal stereotype of conservatives. Pretending to be a conservative, but dropping anti-freedom comments here and there. Trying to make conservatives sound as fascist as the liberals claim we are. He was trolling, clear and simple.

[deepFR]

I agree. With the increasing number of single-parent homes, I think a child is lucky to have either parent at home giving them direction so desparately needed in todays world. A parent should be the most influential figure in a childs life, not a face they see for 3-4 hours a day.

[LibertarianInExile]

Probably not, given the obvious flamebaiting of your prior post.

[familyop]

Howdy, Indie. The stay-at-home dads thing was good for chaos in the old fathers' rights discussions. ...might as well ping it here and offer some cited facts.

PING, PING, PING...fathers' rights ping. Fathers' rights are family rights.

http://www.umich.edu/~urel/admissions/legal/gru_amicus/32_internatl.pdf

The following filed briefs in favor of "affirmative
action" in the Michigan "Grutter v. Bollinger"
(Michigan University) case. Be sure to save the
list of corporations below for later reference.

American Bar Association

American Council on Education, et. al.

Civil Rights Project of Harvard University

Clinical Legal Education Association

Fortune 500 Corporations that filed briefs in favor
of "affirmative action" for Michigan University

3M
Abbott Laboratories
American Airlines
Ashland
Bank One
Boeing
Coca-Cola
Dow Chemical
E.I. Du Pont De Nemours
Eastman Kodak
Eli Lilly
Ernst & Young
Exelon
Fannie Mae
General Dynamics
General Mills
Intel
Johnson & Johnson
Kellogg
KPMG
Lucent Technologies
Microsoft
Mitsubishi
Nationwide Mutual Insurance
Nationwide Financial
Pfizer
PPG
Proctor & Gamble
Sara Lee
Steelcase
Texaco
TRW
United Airlines

General Motors Corporation

Law Deans of Columbia, Cornell, Duke, Georgetown, Harvard, New York and Yale University, and
University of Pennsylvania

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights under Law

Michigan Attorney General

Michigan Public Officials

National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, et. al.

NOW Legal Defense and Education Fund

Ohio State University

Thirty-six Faculty Members of The Ohio State University College of Law

UAW (International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers

[hope]

Unfortunately, I was not able to see some of the things he said.

[Melas]

I've stayed at home for going on 13 years now, and I can assure you that I'm not lacking anything, and I'm definately not an effiminate male.

[Melas]

After 13 years, my housekeeping skills still suck. I am however a great father if I do toot my own home. I'm not a bad educator either as it turns out.

[TalBlack]

If guys ever get the gig that woman gave up believe me they won't EVER (in later years)be burning their jockstraps in the street agitating to join the work force.

How imagination less do you have to be to call doing what you want in the time and order that you want drudgery?

After you get housework and maintenance out of the way you're free to round up the kids and take on the next block in football or basketball. Or build a rocket and see if it works. Or build a homebuilt aircraft. Or go to the movies. Or build models. Or go hang out at the Library. Or go fishing. Or bowling.

The hardest thing about housework is that you are never done with it. But from experience I can say that it doesn't take a hell of a lot of time to do and it isn't even remotely hard or tiring.

[Lazamataz]

If you aren't working for a living, you're a puss-puss.

[TalBlack]

"My wife and I are fighting over who gets to stay home once we have kids."

Dude. see my post (#37)

[phoenix0468]

Thanks for posting this qam1, I was a stay at home dad for two years, till my daughter was three. I wouldn't trade those times for anything.