Time As A Stay-At-Home Dad

For the past few months I've attempted to work at my day job and keep both of my sons at the same time.
To all of you stay-at-home moms - my hat is off to you. To you working mothers - I don't know how you can sustain it for any period of time. I won't even go into the difficulty of being a working mother.
Men - either by nature or tradition - fail to do near as much as women concerning our children. This is not a certainty, but it is obviously the more common of the options. Maybe in all societies, women are the chief care-givers of the home.
Please understand that I can get the job done. I can handle the normal activities of my children, but it's not easy. Throw in the fact that I'm trying to run a business and it was pretty darn tough.
Now I love my boys more than I can even begin to explain, but it's good to be back at work. The constant distraction of even the most basic of questions became overwhelming.
The boys are ages 5 and 3 and the number of questions they can fire from those fast-moving mouths is amazing.
They're needy as well. Examples:
"Dad, can you get me a drink?"
"Dad, can you put my show on?"
"Dad, may I have a snack?"
"Dad, when's Mom going to be home?"
"Dad, can you wipe me?"
Honest to goodness, I should be as skinny as a beanpole because Sutton Hawk is a frequent visitor to the accommodations.
I don't want this to seem as if I didn't enjoy my time with them. I very much did. Maybe too much.
The boys and I are close. I would say we are as close as humans can get. That won't change because I'm now away for several hours a day. But being at home was special.
We're all familiar with the cliche, "Enjoy it now, they grow up fast." Truer words have never been spoken.
I'm glad to have our friend Darlene back with us to help with our kids. She was greatly missed. I wish her absence would have been under different circumstances as she lost her mother, but I think the boys will help provide a release from the sadness of losing a parent.
I firmly believe this time spent with them helped me to heal from the death of my mother last year.
The love of a child is a mighty powerful thing.

Copyright Christopher Blackburn 2009