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Dear stay-at-home parents, I see you, I feel you and I salute you!
In fact, I hereby nominate ALL OF YOU for an Order of Australia medal.
I’ve just completed* (*= narrowly survived) my block of “Dad Leave” where I was primary carer for our two beautiful girls while my darling fiancée returned to work.
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Sleep schedules, meal prep, nappy changes, packing the snacks, cleaning the high chair, sterilising the bottles, washing the onesies, wrestling the toddler to the ground in a failed attempt to put her shoes on, the ordeal of just trying to get them out the door to the park, the ordeal of just trying to get them to LEAVE the park.
It’s meltdown after meltdown after meltdown, and that’s just me. Am I right?!
Wowsers. The PTSD is real. I’m having flashbacks to the gourmet vegetarian omelettes I lovingly prepared the girls in week one.
This was a restaurant quality dish cooked to perfection and delightfully garnished and plated.
Both omelettes were aggressively thrown on the floor before I’d even turned the cooktop off. I can still hear the splat sound.
I remember taking a few deep breaths and writing an entry in my gratitude journal about how blessed I was to have this quality time with them.
Kidding, I hid in the pantry and cried. When I eventually emerged from the pantry the toddler was eating purple play-doh.
But here’s the thing about parenting: Even on the worst days, there’s little glimmers of magic. Little moments that you hold onto and treasure forever.
Mabel, our youngest, is nine months old and this has been such a sweet spot for milestones.
While I’ve been on “Dad Leave” Mabel has started crawling, learnt how to wave and even said her first word: “Dadda”! (Without this precious time, I may not have been able to successfully brainwash her).
Oh, and I’ve experienced some milestones of my own.
I’ve grown a beard for the first time in my life, my showers have been reduced from daily to weekly, I found my first grey hair and most shockingly of all, I became a coffee drinker (it was that or wine).
Those changes might sound normal to you, but anyone who knows me will agree this is a monumental shift. This is survival.
As my “Dad Leave” comes to an end, It’s time to return to my job as TV Weatherman for Sunrise, Australia’s number one breakfast show.
My workdays start at 3.30am where I’m on live television every morning interviewing people from all walks of life and I do approximately 130 flights per year.
Now, I’ve intentionally left the following statement til the end of my article in the slight hope my fiancée doesn’t see it, but here goes….being a stay at home parent is harder than working full time!
There! I said it.
Stay at home parents don’t get a lunch break, there’s no sick days, not even a Sunday sleep in. It’s an express train of emotions and never ending tasks.
I’m fully aware making that statement, in writing, will come back to haunt me and will be Bec’s secret weapon to win countless arguments in our future, but it had to be said.
If you are the stay at home parent, I welcome you to share this article with your partner (just ideally not with mine…I’m clinging onto the hope that statement somehow flies under her radar)
And while I’m speaking my truth, I should point out, I ate that omelette off the floor.
Two hours after it was cooked. That’s when I knew it was time to go back to ‘work’. For a well earned break.
My apologies in advance to Seven Network who can expect to be charged an excess baggage fee for all of my upcoming flights when airport staff see what I’m packing under my eyes right now. Oh boy. Daddy needs a nap.
In closing, I feel closer than ever to my girls, and they’re both bloody amazing.
I also feel more connected to my fiancée. My admiration for her (and for all stay at home parents) has entered another stratosphere.
You are the real MVP’s. The hardest and most rewarding role in the world.
I encourage more workplaces, and particularly more Dads to take on the primary carer role for a stint if you can.
It will change you. And your family will be all the better for it.
