So cool to find you guys

[pzacle]

I have been primary caregiver for my kids since birth. My wife does the corporate executive thing... and thats great for her- she needs to do something like that, but that's never been my style and that has turned out great for my kids.

I'm a writer, and my fiction went on hold long ago when I decided I'd try to grow up for a while. I pulled it off for a long time... and arranged my work life (as a contract negotiator for a labor Union) so that I'd be able to be there for my kids as needed. But in 2003 the demands of the employer amped up to a degree that was, in my mind at least, unmeetable for a hands-on parent. My kids started learning just a bit too much about life on the playground after school while I was trying to meet those demands. I had thought that getting the kids through infancy, diapers, into school, etc. etc. was what was really important and what was going to take the most time but I had it all wrong. Its when they are beginning to think, and beginning to form value judgements that will shape who they will become- that is when a parent's presence becomes critical.

So their need for me, and my need to write kind of came together at the same time that my wife got a huge promotion with 60-70 hour/week expectations. I said adios and never looked back. Money is tighter, and I freak sometimes that my 401K is dead, but heh, I would give my life for my kids.

In my world, other SAHDs are not easy to spot. I know a few at my kids school, which is a very small K-12, but each guy kind of does their own thing and we don't get together. There are alot of SAHmoms at school, but I've come to regard them as another species, partly because I feel like I must be an alien or something when I'm around them. In school function after school function for the last 10 years I have usually been the only man, and that, well, makes them uncomfortable. Ther article in the index here about Stay at home moms hits it right on the head.

Thanks for being here.

Phil

[Don-Dad]

Welcome to our site, stop by again :)

[pzacle]

:D Thanks for the welcome Louis, Don... I had sensed that the majority of the dads here still had young kids... and might even be young... but it doesn't really matter. Kids grow up real fast, and while I'm 46 now, it was only yesterday that I was 33 and got married, and I'm still really only about eleven when considering how I generally see the world... and kids of any age can turn an adult into putty, their brains into muck... and send blood pressure into the stratosphere if they lose their perspective.

Us SAHDs, we are an anomaly in our civilization, and despite the statistics about our growing numbers, most people do not know how to relate to us.

So I'm glad to be here, and glad to share whatever I can to help another in our little brotherhood.

Phil

[Jackson's Dad]

Welcome to our little club house. Some of us here are younger, some older. Hopefully we have a nice mix of experiences.

Dan

[Don-Dad]

Dan's old :P

[Patrickz]

I'm 42 and bald. is that old :???: :D Oh and welcome Phil

[tt3]

I've got a physical tomorrow morning, I'll tell ya how old they say I am then!

Welcome, by the way!

[jeffus]

Hey, I peed red last night!

Saw doc today - looks like a kidney infection......But at least I have my hair! :D

I'm 39!

[Don-Dad]

Tony, is it a full physical?

Bend over and touch your toes, ouch :)



I am a 33 with the body of a 32 year old :P

[jeffus]

You haven't lived until you had a siqmoidoscopy! :shock:

[pzacle]

You haven't lived until you had a siqmoidoscopy! :shock:

Ouch! So the truth is coming out , and at least one is admitting that the truth is red...

I've always thought it was dangerous for a guy's sanity to spend too much time: alone; with women; with children; drunk; home alone all day with children, without women, with 75 lbs of laundry to do... that'll make any of us pee red... and lose our hair.

[jeffus]

I'm not quite sure how to read that post, but no one was more surprised than me to see a red guyser last night. I had some back pain the last couple of days and then - poof! :shock:

Thankfully, it doesn't hurt too much. :D

Maybe it's all the blood I wanted to draw when they asked for Audrey's (my daughter) mommy and I was the only person in the room. :twisted:

[Awwc]

Welcome pzacle!

Keeping in tune with the thread so far, I'm 31.

And I don't pee red.

[tt3]

29, so I'm hoping to get away with not getting the FULL physical. I don't mind turning my head and coughing, but the whole singing "Moon River" is ... daunting... (Chevy Chase, can't remember the movie though... "Mooooooooon River!")
:oops:

Jeff, I hope your river runs clear soon!

[Patrickz]

Yes I hope all turns out well. Red Pee is no good for sure. :(

[jeffus]

Thanks guys!

And I think it was Fletch :wink:
Good Luck Tony!

[tt3]

whoohoo, good news, my blood pressure is fine even with the new guidelines, so's my resting heartrate and thats with my morning coffee! Best of all, doc said not till 50 for the other.
Oh, and hows this for cool... "How's your b#lls? No lumps or bumps?" "nope" "I'll take your word for it." "I won't argue."


Wow, this has been a grand hijack of a thread, huh?!? :lol:

[jeffus]

I can't believe the site wasn't shut down after you used the h*jack word! :shock:

Have any FBI guys knocked on your door yet?

But, hey, at least we're talking about something. It's been pretty quiet around here lately.

My river runs clear again. 1 day on antibiotics and I already feel much better.

I've dropped $4600 on some high-end mechanical engineering software earlier this year and been very busy learning it, using it, and making money with it. I've more than paid for it already. :D 8) Even better - I'm just getting started and (if the antibiotics work out) I won't have to use the money for a kidney transplant! :wink:

With the kid in pre-school 3 days a week, I get to meet some grown-ups and do some business. Dusting off the ME degree, clearing the Fischer-Price cobwebs out of my head, and getting busy!

[pzacle]

...if it's a general phys and you're under 45 yrs then the two finger tickle isn't really necessary.


This is the only thing that makes me feel older than 11 years old... and I have put off my most recent physical for a real long time.

What I want to know is, how can any self respecting guy respect another guy (the doctor) that does this for a living?

I started to get to know my doctor socially, possible business deal too, when we first met. But as soon as he did that, it was like, no way I could sit across the table at lunch with him again. Anybody else find away around that, I mean, having lunch with a guy that's stuck his finger up your ass?

[Anonymous]

... sending him flowers the next day.

I would agree that flowers the next day would be strange, but now, after 4 years he might get a kick out of it. :wink:

[pzacle]

I'm the guest above. forgot to log in

phil :axe:

[Weston]

Welcome to the group Phil!

As you can tell there's a great buch of guys here that don't always take themselves too seriously :lol:

This place has been a great help to me.... hard to find in our line of work

Mike

[Patrickz]

My Doc at the time was a forty somthing women and I didn't even hardly know she was there. Just in and out so to speak! :lol: I am due for another check :shock: crap and my now doc is male in his 30's. But seriously prostate cancer is very treatable if found early and don't die out of embarasment guys.

[pzacle]

I concede, yes, these exams are important. But heh, they are great fun to "poke" fun at, eh?

But if I ever have lunch with my doctor again, it will always be weird to watch him eat, knowing where his hands have been.


And yes, I know, I should just forget it, but hey, I'm a guy, and we all have minds that go where they shouldn't.


phil :wink:

[Anonymous]

Dr: "Ok Phil... no worries, all you're going to feel is a little prick"

Phil: "Doc.... I hardly know you!"


:toimonster:

Dr: "Its better that way."

Phil: "Well, then it had better be 'little' like you promise. Your wife told me it was big, so I guess she was wrong, huh?"