Caffeinated Clint
Mr. Mom
It’d be hard enough being a stay-at-home dad…. But a stay-at-home dad who also “has a pretty demanding job� now that’s just unheard of….. ask my mates!
12:10 pm: I’ve seen “Baby Boom†so I know it can be done…. But hells bells, you’ve never felt you shoes rubbing against your feet so much as when you play a stay-at-home parent trying to work from home. The constant running from room-to-room would give anyone sore spots on their feet.
Sounded like a good idea at the time – and I still say it is – but wow, it’s quite a task trying to work whilst looking after a 6-month old (for those wondering, my wife had to return to work – – she’s a scientist, so she literally has to be in the lab). Whenever you sit down at the computer to work, you can almost guarantee that bubs will be crying – or waking – by the time you get to that first….
Hang on, can hear a baby crying.
1:35 pm: OK, I’m back. Where was I? Oh yeah, it’s difficult trying to work and play parent at the same time without any assistance. Part of my job is trying to watch movies, for instance, but about twenty-minutes into something you can be assured you’ll have to get up to move baby from the corner she’s wedged herself into, or, get some more milk ready. You can also guarantee that by the time, say, the beaver is released in “Basic Instinctâ€â€¦. You’ll be scooping chocolate custard from your little ones behind.
It sounds like I’m complaining, but I’m not, I think I’d just like people that have no friggin’ idea what it’s like juggling kids with work to know that it isn’t a walk in the park. A walk in the park was me, working twelve jobs, staying awake until 2am completing deadlines – – – this is the equivalent of having to re-shoot the finale of “Invasionâ€â€¦. No easy task.
But you know what? I wouldn’t have it any other way. I don’t want my kid going to day care at 6 months old and sharing nappies with the three feral kids from down the road but more so, I want her to know her Dad. Her mum, too, obviously… but her Dad… if only because I don’t remember my Pop being around much as a kid. Most children become accustomed to seeing their father’s for about half-an-hour-a-day – before and after work. Thing is, I’m in a position – literally – where I can be the guardian… I have no excuse. I’m a journalist and film producer, so it doesn’t much matter where I work from as long as there’s a computer, phone line and notepad handy. Obviously I’m not getting as much done as I’d like in the afternoons – Mum leaves for work after lunch, so I tend to rise very early and squeeze as much work in as possible – as I’d like to, and some of the important phone calls I’m having to take – like the one, for instance, on Saturday morning where I was negotiating with a former “Breakfast Club†star to appear in a new film I’m producing – don’t go as smoothly as I’d like them to, but I’m not only getting things done… I’m getting things done whilst spending quality time with my beautiful little girl.
I know a few guys with children, and they’re already telling me I’m “crazy†for doing this. But you know what? Fuck that. As I see it, we contributed to making that kid… we shouldn’t just pass him/her off to the woman with the tits and be done with it. No, we can’t tug milk from our jugs…. But we can bath, change, nurse, feed, clean and…possibly, working at home so she/he doesn’t have to spend the next four years getting to know her [possibly screwloose and harmful] grandmother. I know some people don’t have a choice but to drop their little one off at grandma’s, and some are forced to put their kids into day care… but those that do so because they simply ‘can’t be bothered’ need to…
Hang on, I can hear tears…
1:40 PM : False alarm. As I was saying, those that simply drop their kids off at day-care or at their parents’ because they can’t be bothered with the little one, or think it’ll be too difficult working from home with the baby in tow, should remember one thing: Your child didn’t make you flip mummy upside down on the couch that night to play American gladiators…. That was you, all you, and you’ve now got a responsibility… whether that means only being attend to attend half the movie screenings you did last year (I, for instance, can’t go to any screening after 2pm anymore – – but I have to accept that) or typing articles up in parts – as I seem to do every day now – so be it. Learn to live with it. Learn to enjoy it.
Sounds like a bitch, right? Well, it ain’t. It’s actually rewarding… especially when you get to see your little one walk away with the top trophy for Child of the year at a baby competition. Now that’s the shit right there.
Anyway, let’s end it there…. I want to use this time (sleeping time) to its full advantage and get some work done.
Clint
P.S. I never knew DVDs had so many “chaptersâ€.
