Online Resource for Stay-at-Home Dads

Slowlane.com is for dads, specifically stay-at-home dads.

The Slowlane.com site provides dads with a searchable collection of articles and media clips written by, for, and about primary care-giving fathers. It also hosts multiple web sites for at home dads, including independent SAHD groups and several local Dad-to-Dad chapters, all of whose missions are to help dads connect with each other in their local areas.

Check the site here.

Childcare an Issue in Ireland Elections

The issue of quality childcare and support for stay-at-home parents has apparently become more prominent in the political arena, at least in Ireland.

Parents rate childcare in the top three issues driving their voting intentions in the next general election.

The findings are remarkable in that working parents struggling to meet childcare costs recognise that stay-at-home parents are equally in need of financial support. In all, 84% of households where both parents work favour a State payment to stay-at-home parents.

Likewise, nine out of 10 households where at least one parent is at home believe the Government should provide tax relief to working parents who pay for childcare.

Winds of change may be on the way for Irish stay-at-home parents.

More statistics from the same study:

A paltry one-in-four women return to full-time work once they have a family. The majority of new mothers opt to become full-time parents or work reduced hours. Full-time parenting is seen as the ideal childcare arrangement by the majority.

[Source: Irish Examiner]

Suggestions for Getting Your Career Back

It's hard to go back to work after 5 or more years of being at home with kids. But it's not impossible.

Here are some suggestions for getting your career back on track. Some of these preparations can be done even while you're at home.

* Develop specific, portable and more saleable skills, such as accounting, marketing or brand management.

* Identify the best part of your existing or previous position and explore new career options built around it. "The ideal is to develop a position that offers full-time hours and a schedule that meshes with raising your child."

* Start your own business. Many SAHMs prefer this route as it gives them flexibility their hours and occupation.

* Pick a hot occupation. But remember that "an ever-changing work-arena that sparks demand for certain skill sets can cool just as quickly and render entire occupational fields obsolete."

All these strategies won't eliminate the lasting price mothers pay in diminished income and advancement for choosing to stay at home but they may reduce those losses or lead to a new career.

[Source: Cape Argus]

How Do You Do It?

To the moms out there who have things figured out, how do you do it?

If you hold a job, look after 2 kids, volunteer in at least one organization, regularly spend time with a hobby, and manage to keep an organized household, while still spending quality time with your husband, how do you do it?

If you are a stay-at-home parent, take care of 3 kids, have hot meals 3 times a day, keep your sink clear of dishes, work out regularly, see your friends once a week, and get 8 hours of sleep every day, while managing to teach your kids how to read, how do you do it?

My own mom may not believe this, but I have not worked so endlessly as I do now. And yet, there's always something that's left undone. I feel inefficient. Unorganized. Overrun with an endless to-do list. I am on-call 24 hours a day, even on weekends. Weekends? My weeks don't ever seem to end. And yet, everyday seems to be a workday Monday.

Maybe I need to streamline my methods or give up some things. I've got lots to learn about the business of being a SAHM.