When I was made redundant in October I said, on this very
blog, that I thought I’d be okay and find another job reasonably quickly.
Thankfully, I was right. I start that new job in four days, and I’m excited.
I won’t go into too much detail about it, but it’s the type
of work I’ve always thought I ought to be doing, but never quite managed to get
into before now. There’s a lot of optimism in my mind at the moment, which is
especially amazing when the job I left had done a pretty good job of grinding
all that out of me.
But. There’s always a but. It’s the law.
I’m going back to work full time. My previous job allowed me
to reduce my hours so that I could share in the childcare duties with Mrs L
when she finished her maternity leave. That meant spending a whole day each
week with Cam. Just me and him, father and son time. I’ve had that privilege
for almost exactly a year, and I have loved it.
As of next Thursday, he’ll have an extra day at nursery, and
I will re-join the full time working parent population. I will see him briefly
in the morning, briefly in the evening, and at weekends. I will, I think, be
quite sad about missing the developments he makes, and the things we get to do,
and all the hugs and affection.
I realise that the time I have been able to spend as a
part-time SAHD marks me out as one of the lucky ones. Most men don’t seem to
have the chance to spend time with their children as they’re growing up. It’s a
massive shame. As far as I’m concerned, the more equally shared the parental
responsibilities are the better it is for all parties. I’d love to think part
time work will be an option for me again sometime in the future.
Still, mortgages need paying; it probably wouldn’t be much
fun having lots of time with Cam if we didn’t have a house to spend it in.
I’m immensely grateful for the time I spent as a part-timer,
and to any other dad reading this who is considering it as a possibility I say
this: DO IT.
