Kids keep you humble

Some of you may know that I am a WAHD who is married and has two little girls. Let me tell you, those girls especially know how to keep you humble, grounded and focused on what is most important.

This morning I had big plans for my business. Lots of e-mails to write, lots of articles and blogs to update, etc.

However, my youngest had a different idea altogether. She in particular has had a hard time adjusting to mommy going off to work and me being at home with her. She is always so anxious to see my wife that she gets up extra early (often before 6AM) to see my wife before she goes off to work.

Well today, my daughter reached her limit. She was exhausted from getting up early and had an utter melt down.

Now, of course I had plans to get work done. Unfortunately my first reaction is to tell her to be quiet so daddy could work. However, one look at her and I knew that she needed my attention.....

I did the old count to 10....catch my breath for having to drop all of my work for her.....and then sat with her on the couch and help her calm down......It only took me 30 minutes ;)

Anyway, I realized afterwards that I am glad I am able to be there for her. Quite different than my previous life in corporate america.

Has anyone else had a similar experience?

Adventures into "Play Date Land"

More uncharted fatherhood territory for me here. My oldest daughter is off of school for two weeks (we are on a year round school system here) and I am quickly learning about the concept of a "Play Date".

What is a "Play Date" you might ask? Well, up until recently I had no idea what one was. I mean I understood the concept of it, but never really knew how they worked. How does one arrange a "Play Date" for a daughter of theirs?

In case you were wondering, the whole topic of the two phrases "My Daughter" and "Date" always elicited a response like, "She will never date when she is a teenager, I am going to send her off to a monastery when she reaches 13." So....you understand where I am coming from on this?

It just feels plain weird calling up another Mom from my daughters class and asking if Johnny 1st grader can come over for a "Play Date" with my daughter. Again, re-read the previous paragraph and you will understand when "daughter" and "date" are in the same sentence I get pretty strong negative emotions.......

What is even more weird is blurting out the phrase to a Mom "Play Date".

Again, one of those things and conversations that I never EVER would have imagined I would be having before I became a SAHD/WAHD.

Has anyone else had any experiences or problems with the phrase "Play Date"?

So What Do You Do?

I have addressed this in a previous post, however, after a recent comment by another Stay-At-Home/Work-At-Home Dad, I feel this needs re-addressing.



Often this is one of the first points of conversation with a new acquaintance, particularly with other guys. Even with the many ladies I meet at the playground this question comes up.



So, essentially what I do is run a business my wife started out of my house. I help and train others to realize that they can do this same thing too, its really not that hard to do if you know how and are willing to learn. My true passion lies with helping parents live the life they want to lead and spend more time with their families.



In particular, I concentrate on teaching a system and "non-selling" technique in my business and marketing which focuses on on-line lead generation for any business. Its a technique of becoming the hunted instead of the hunter in your home business, applicable to anyone.



I can teach you that marketing your business or any business can be as easy as passing out DVDs.

A Rather Surreal Day

It has finally come to this. Reflecting upon it, this has been one of the most surreal days I have had as a Stay-At-Home Dad. You know it is really one of those days when I say, "I never ever thought I would be doing this." I really had to catch myself and ask, "How did I get here?"

The culminating event, or events, was at a swim lesson for my four year old daughter. We go with a Stat-At-Home Mom neighbor of ours to a local swim place where both of our kids take lessons.

I was chatting with this Mom about what my daughter and I were going to do for the rest of the day, and I replied, "We are going to the grocery store and picking up a few things. You know, we use the 'Grocery Game' and it saves us a ton of money." We then proceeded to talk for a few more minutes about the Grocery Game and how it saved us a ton of money. Several other moms were sitting nearby and they also chimed in their own comment and questions, "Does that game really work?" or "I've heard of that and always wanted to do it". Another question was, "I hear that you need to go to like 10 different stores in order to do the Grocery Game." I then proceeded to tell them all that it was easy and that we only went to two grocery stores and yes it does save a ton of money.

I then had a moment of absolute clarity. Did I really just have a 10 minute conversation about the Grocery Game with 4 moms? How did my life become this?

Several minutes later I sent my 4 year old daughter to the changing room to get out of her wet swimming suit and into dry clothes. Little did I know that she had another plan and proceeded to completely strip down in the changing room.....and then run around the pool area without any clothes. Of course I chased her all around until I caught her and promptly brought her back and got her dressed. It took me about 5 minutes to get her back in the changing room.

Again, another moment of clarity. Did I really just have to chase around my stripped down daughter in a public place? Again, how did my life become this?

To top it off, when I finally got home I discovered that the dog had pooped AND peed on the carpet upstairs. I found myself very quickly cleaning up the mess.

I just never imagined a sequence of events like that would ever happen to me. All in one day, all in one hour. How did I get here? Well, I believe my wife and I decided that this arrangement would be best.

I just laughed it off. How many Dads get to have a day and experience like this?