For Stay-At-Home Dads, Every Day Is Father’s Day

On this Father’s Day, we leave you with this “guest” blog post from Edward Drossman, a stay-at-home dad in New York City, and valued member of our group.

Father’s Day is that day dads get showered with gifts from iPhones to iPods to flat screen TVs (hint, hint) and other gadgets … but there is a group of dads who get to experience the joy of Father’s Day not one day a year, but every day of the year. They are stay-at-home dads.

A stay-at-home dad (SAHD) describes a father who is the primary caregiver of his children. As a SAHD, I’m able to take advantage of being around my son, Zachary, the entire day and witness his milestones first hand instead of having to hear about it over the phone from my wife or through a video clip emailed to me from daycare.

My day starts off like any other dad’s day does. Anywhere from 6 – 8 a.m., I hear the cry of my son which is something I rarely hear these days, so when I hear it, I know he needs to be fed. First things first, the changing of the guard, or the the diaper in this case. This one is a doozy. Any way, when I finish my duty (or his, in this case), its time for some Yo Baby Yogurt with fruit and rice cereal coupled a bottle. While I’m feeding him, my wife usually gets the clothes out that she wants him to wear (she thinks I have a problem matching clothing, and she might be correct about this).

After I feed and change Zacky’s dirty diaper, he likes to take a nap between 10 and 11am. This enables me to take a shower and maybe try and get some bills paid. I look on Craigs List or Mediabistro.com for work from home opportunities, update my Facebook status or write a blog posting or two (my wife thinks I spend too much idle time and again, she might be right).

Following his nap, I change his diaper again and put on the clothes my wife selected for him. Next, we venture outside, which either means a Parent & Me class at the 92nd Street Y, Gymboree, or if it’s a Wednesday, a meeting with the New York City Dads Group. This get together is great because it allows me to interact with other dads who are in a similar position as I’m in. The meetings are one of the highlights of my week. The other highlights include dinner with my wife and Zacky, of course. Dinner involves a fun family dinner with the three of us or calling a sitter and going out on our own for a date. The latter is a rare occasion.

Following the weekly NYC Dads Group meetings, a few of us go with our kids to have a bite to eat. At those lunches or early dinners, we talk sports, Wall Street, or even about our children’s accomplishments (ie, first roll over, first crawl, first steps, etc.). I’m still waiting on my son’s first steps. There’s always photos being taken to document our dads group experiences and posted on either www.nycdadsgroup.com or the NY City Dads Group Meetup Site. As an aside, I always take a picture of my son wearing the outfit that my wife picked out and email it to her. (Just to show her that I take directions well).

Usually at the meetups or following the meet ups, my son will want lunch, which has started to be finger foods and most recently pasta and pea soup (milestone!). Then, it’s time to head home, put Sesame Street on for my son to watch and log on to my Ameritrade or Schwab account (I know my wife says I spend too much time analyzing stocks & that she’s absolutely right about that. People who track their stocks less and trade less, often make more money in the market than I). A little while later (or a lot later in many cases, my wife’s a very hard worker) my wife arrives home and this is her special time to bond with Zacky. We might order in dinner or pack Zacky up and take him out with us. I try and take a back seat and let my wife bond with Zacky.

After dinner, it’s usually diaper changing time (for Zacky) followed by a bottle with water (got to take care of his teeth) and finally (hopefully) bedtime. Now, if that isn’t a great Father’s Day, I don’t know what is. But for me right now, it’s like this every day. So keep your iPhones, iPods, Flat screen TVs and other cool gadgets. I don’t need them. I already have the greatest gift a guy could have, thanks to my wonderful wife.