Stay-at-home-dads are exceptionally rare. Single stay-at-home-dads are almost nonexistent. Who could have imagined a single, stay-at-home, full-time student dad?
Mike Schieding is the physical embodiment of this Nessie of the SAHDs. Mike became a father in his junior year of high school. Despite the odds he graduated and went on to join a special program for single parents at Endicott College.
In Germany, a new law allows parents (dad’s too!) to take up to 14 months of leave and retain 67% of their salary. The US Family Medical Leave Act only requires employers to give their employees twelve weeks of unpaid leave for the birth of their child. Now it looks like 8.5% of German men are taking advantage of the new program.
What a great place to be a stay-at-home dad! They have even coined a new term for it: babypause. Don’t bother google-ing it unless you have been brushing up on your deutscher Wortschatz. Maybe would should start talking to our congressmen about extending and enhancing our own FMLA. How many of us wish this was available in the US? It makes me realize how lucky I am to have the opportunity to be a SAHD.
Thanks dadventure and Edukey.
TrackbackWe are getting ready to register this weekend for the baby shower so I have stepped up my research a bit. Of all the varied products I have looked at and read about there is one thing that keeps jumping out at me. “Even dad can do it,” “Dad safe,” and “Daddy friendly.” A new diaper systems we just purchased closes with a set of snaps and claim that it is so easy even dad can do it. I don’t know about you, but I have been buttoning and snapping my own pants for a while now. Why do baby product manufacturers see dads, and men in general, as incompetent morons? Sometime I just want to know some heads together.
A fellow new dad, Mike, recently created a new blog named Stay at Home Dad, Geek Style. Like me, he is also a member of the new-dad-self-proclaimed geek brotherhood. (In case you hadn’t figured it out yet, all the best people are geeks) He balances his time between taking care of Alex and running a web-development business out of his home. His site has a real professional feel to it without a bunch of adds jumping out at you or mile-long link lists. He keeps everything short and to the point. I really like the openness of his posts. Many bloggers are too focussed on product reviews and advertising and leave out the personal side I look for. It’s nice to know someone else out there shares many of my feelings and anxieties about being a new dad. I really like the WP layout he is using but find the huge right column a little distracting. Hopefully after the contest that will shrink down a bit.
In order to drum up some more traffic for his new site he is also holding a give-away. You can see the details at Stay At Home Dad Digital Camera Give-Away. Here’s a guy who really knows how to advertise!
After looking at a bunch of different commercially available cribs and the cost of a nice one I decided to build one myself. There are a few different plan sites I looked at but finally went with a transitional crib from Rockler. It changes from a crib to a day bed to a twin head and foot board. The plans and instructions, which arrived two days after ordering them, appear to be pretty thorough and they included plans for building different jigs to make the slat construction go faster. Now I just have to go buy some wood and actually get started.