As many of you know, being a SAHD is not always an easy thing. The long nights when they are babies, the bottles, diapers, and the crying but I do not think I would trade any of it for the ability I've had to stay home and be with my kids throughout their entire lives. But there are also many things that I do love about it. Being able to pick my children up from preschool or meet them at the bus stop rather than having them at daycare and being able to be at home and spend time with them on a daily basis has been amazing in my life. My children get to play at home with their Dad and I can make lunch and spend time playing and doing activities has been something that I never imagined. During this year of Covid, my Wife has been sure to let me know how much she appreciates me being able to be a SAHD. We've kept our children home for virtual schooling and the fact that I can handle everything about it while she has been working has been invaluable. Without that ability, I am sure that our lives would be thousands of times more hectic and stressful while trying to juggle their schooling.
While I do think that being a SAHD is an amazing thing in my life I do always try to hound on the point of self-care. I now always emphasize the point to find a hobby, do some volunteer work, do anything that you like that gets you out of the house. My first few years as a SAHD honestly were kind of miserable for the fact that I had no hobbies or activities to distract me from the children. I took care of the kids but I had no outlet for stress or recreation and it was honestly starting to eat me alive. Since then I have made a point of doing things that have gotten me outside of the house. I've taken up hiking and backpacking which is wonderful since here in Wisconsin we have thousands of miles of scenic hiking trails and I can get out for exercise, during the summer I'll attend my local "Cars & Coffee" gathering which allows me to have adult conversations outside of the house which I find helps immensely. I think the most important self-care I've found though is volunteering as an Off-Ice Official for a local junior hockey team. This gets me out of the house weekly during the winter, which in Wisconsin is long, dark, and dreary. I had also earlier mentioned that I had wanted to be a pilot so I also am quite the flight simulator enthusiast, even if it is only for 30 minutes I can boot up a flight and escape into the world of flying and just relax and destress.
So in conclusion I would like to say that I have loved my time as a SAHD and I look forward to doing it for many more years but I always want to emphasize that balance, like in most things in life, is key to being successful and being able to do a good job. Our kids love us and look to us but we are useless if we are completely burnt out to our cores without that chance to recharge. As the character Red Green would say " Remember, I'm pulling for you. We're all in this together.".