Wanted: Accurate Job Title

Ok, this blogging thing is going well so far. It’s been 2 days since I became a blogger and this is now my second blog. I am officially on target with my goal, pat on the back for me.

It’s mid morning, Baby James has been asleep for nearly an hour, I’m showered and fed, I’ve vacuumed, tidied, made a bed for a guest who’s staying tonight, checked Facebook a couple of times (more thoughts on that subject later) and while doing all of that I’ve been thinking about what I’ll blog about today.

I have a need to start from the beginning. Not the Stephen Hawking version of the beginning but my version. How did I become a House Dad? (Should I keep capitalising that term? I’ll give some more thought to that later.)

Well, the question of how I became a House Dad has two elements to the answer. First of all, what were the considerations that My Sweet and I pondered about before we decided that I would stay at home full-time to care for the now-named Baby James? Secondly, what was the process of deliberation that I went through before I settled on the term House Dad as the moniker to describe my new role?

I think I will answer Question Number 2 first.

So, here I am, the House Dad. How did I choose that descriptor? Well I did consider ‘house husband’ but that seemed too PC, too the reverse of ‘house wife’, plus, too many syllables. And for that same reason ‘stay at home dad’ got the flick. A couple of people have tried to tag me with ‘Mr Mum’ or should that be ‘Mr Mom’ after that excellent piece of cinematography starring Michael (I’m Batman) Keaton. Well, for the record, I hate that term and it really PISSES me off, so without needing to consider it for long, that option went to the round file too. I have written on Baby James’ kindy application form in the space allocated for ‘Father’s Occupation’, the title, ‘At Home Parent’, but like ‘stay at home dad’, it’s too long.

I tend to over-think almost everything (I’ve just now wondered whether ‘over-think’ should be hyphenated or not, so what does that tell you about me?) So, as you can gather, I put a bit of thought into what should have been a fairly easy choice. I gave thought to the minutest piece of meaning that could be derived or interpreted from my chosen role title, but, essentially I was looking for a job title and description that wouldn’t emasculate me, that wasn’t an attempt to talk up my job (as I think the term domestic engineer does), one which in mind would be a gender equivalent to ‘house wife’. And so, I chose House Dad.

Now, as for the process that gave rise to me actually being the House Dad, well, that will have to wait for tomorrow.