How My Hubby Became a Stay-at-home Dad to Save My Family

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Elle magazine posted an article by writer, Lynn Steger Strong, on how her husband becoming a stay-at-home dad saved their family.

The mum of two said,

My husband was traveling more and more then. I was home alone with the children almost constantly. When he was gone, I missed him for not being there, for not being an extra pair of hands when one baby was crying and the other one was puking, for not laughing with me when our two-year-old said something charming, when our four month old farted so loud it woke me up while she slept on top of me in the middle of the night.

I was jealous of how much it seemed as if he felt he still had a right to a normal life. He had dinner with friends and stayed out late sometimes when he travelled. He slept straight through the night; he watched TV. He had access to his limbs and all his other body parts for long stretches of time in which he could be quiet. He had conversations that were not interrupted by someone crying, someone needing, someone waking up. I kept telling him I just needed him to understand this. I kept saying he just needed to express to me that he appreciated how much I missed the life I’d given up.

They started to fight and argue a lot as neither of them really had the strength or patience to understand each other. Lynn was constantly exhausted from having to mind two toddlers and her husband was also stressed from work.

When her husband saw that their relationship was strained and their finances wasn’t even getting any better – they had piles of bills – he quit his job. Lynn then started working full-time while her husband watched the children. He also took on extra jobs on the weekends to supplement their income.

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She noticed that her husband was tidier than she was and things around the house were looking better after he took over. She said,

My husband has taken to this role of stay-at-home dad in ways I find both endlessly fascinating and about which I am sometimes sad. He is forever researching ways to sneak kale into muffins and smoothies. He is much more orderly than I am and the house and babies are now cleaner, the laundry always done.

She concluded by saying she “forgot for while what an extraordinary man she married” and watching him take care of and love their children reminded her.