Lucas_Dad

I'm a full time dad (jobless pommie loser). Tuesdays are the one day per week when my just-about 3yo goes in to day care. One day per week, when I get to clean the floors, catch up on laundry, play music VERY loud, etc. etc.

Today however, while my 3yo is in care, I have my almost-7yo home off sick from school. He has stopped chucking up, but is nowhere near fit for school. Instead, we've watched some news (BTN on ABC ME), some science-based programmes, read books together, plus watched the F1 and MotoGP I recorded to watch later. It has been, for me, a really good day. Rubbish for him. He's missed his mates, and been unwell. For me, less chores, but more bonding. Of course I wish he was well, but I have really enjoyed looking after him and sharing time with him.

Anyone else have days like this? Happy/sad/glad that your kids were ill?!

Dan.S

On the contrary. She makes us miserable when she's ill but we sure as heck enjoy our little time when she at school or at grandma.
I'm sure you're a great dad. A bad one would not point out things the way you did.

Gordon Barlow

For six years in the '80s, I was my son's full-time housefather, between his ages of six to eleven. ("Parent of first resort", I called it.) My wife refused to give up her job, and (rightly or wrongly) I didn't want him to be a latchkey child. I sound a bit of a sook saying it, but it was far and away the most rewarding job I have ever had. Strongly recommended. He's 43 now, and we're still infinitely closer than he and his mother.

moneypenny20

Not necessarily glad when they were sick but I was one of a small minority (it seemed) of parents who relished the end of term and hated it when the new term started. I loved, and still do now they're in their 20s, spending time doing things with them, talking, listening and learning with them. I have never understood those parents who open the bubbly when term time starts. We were lucky enough to be able to struggle (a lot) on one salary so I could be a stay at home mum and have those fantastic memories. All credit to those parents who work and have to put their kids into day care but I'm so bloody happy I didn't even if it did bugger up my career.

Jerseygirl

That mirrors the way I feel and my life.

Lucas_Dad

Most rewarding job ever - yes, how I feel too. My IT career is totally gone, having not worked now for 6 years. Come the time I have to get a proper job, I've no idea what I'm going to do. I'm licensed as a swim teacher, which is fun, but the money's pretty pants. My wife is great, she has a good job and is insistent that the money she earns is 'our' money, but I still struggle with that and ask permission if I want to buy socks, or even a six pack of beer on a Friday!

Gordon Barlow

We're on the same page, Dad! After my six years as "parent of first resort", I was lucky enough to get a two-year stint setting up an office for an organisation, although "lucky" was not quite the way it turned out. The job put me on the wrong side of the local politicians. Since it looked as though I would be expelled from the Island I took our son to a boarding school in England and stuck around to see off the enemy. My wife was still in a reasonably well-paid job, but I was totally unemployable - far too hot to handle, in a place where the politicians controlled the entire workforce. So what I did - and you might consider doing this, too, if your wife's earning power keeps up - is to say 'the hell with it' and retire. Risky, of course, but we made it through, with the help of some local businessmen who took me on as a part-time consultant. I'm still doing that. If you can find anything like that, you'll be fine.

Our financial arrangement wouldn't suit everybody, but we (wife and I) have always had joint bank-accounts, both believing the principle of community-property that most divorce courts work on. We have come damn close to the divorce court on occasion, but we never abandoned our arrangement. Not for everybody, as I said. So I'm with your wife, on this count. She's right and you're half-wrong. No disrespect, of course!