A pastor’s musings on fatherhood, religion, life and everything

Just wanted to see if there were any dads who stayed at home and watched the kids while your significant other worked outside the home?  I know this is a reversal of the “traditional” roles, but was curious to see what the responses would be.

Currently I work 26-30 hours per week and also take care of Cooper 4-5 days per week while my wife works full-time.  So if you have any experiences you’d like to share this can be a sounding board for full-time dads as well as if there are any women who’d like to share their thoughts on this topic.

I just had the revelation today that I’m a dad.  Yes, I know technically I became a dad on April 19th at 6:31pm when my son, Cooper, was born, but today I became a real dad!  For some background: this week at church we began to read Waking the Dead which is about reclaiming your heart, and we talked about what (if any) spiritual purpose we felt each day.

Today it dawned on me that mine is being a dad, and this is why.  Now that I’m Cooper’s primary caregiver during the day now that his mom has gone back to work full-time; it’s up to me to feed him, clean him up, etc.  But at the same time, I’m also a pastor who needs to get a certain amount of work done.  However, today I realized that it’s not about how many sermons I preach or telephones I answer or mail that I open and sort; instead it’s about me being a dad.  Giving myself over completely to my son and taking care of him – that is my spiritual focus each day.  Taking care of someone who so completely and without questioning trusts me and believes in what I’m doing is my spiritual exercise for today and for who knows how long.  But that’s okay, because I’m a dad.