Daddy, make a picture

Since today is my first official day back at full time work (and last as a stay at home daddy), I figured was about time I chimed in on the now-infamous Lisa Belkin article, Opting Out.

I’ll let Rebeldad address the global issues. I can only speak for myself.

Two years ago I was let go from the corporate world. My place of employment prided itself as offering one of the most generous work/life balance programs in the industry. Some policies designed to make our lives easier included giving out laptops to all managers so we could check our email before dinner, after putting the kids to sleep and before heading into work in the morning. I could go on but I’ve let go of most of the anger.

So based on my own experience I think Belkin gets it only half right. It’s not about those who can opt-out, the upper middle class white women who can leave work to raise the kids while their husband works, it’s about parents being willing to take back the private space of family life and being willing to throttle back on their own expectations of what job success means.

Next week I’m re-entering the world of work (opting-in?) but I’m not leaving behind the world of parenting. I’ve set things up from the begining so that I can spend the mornings with the kids, make breakfast, pick out outfits and even drop Jeremy off at nursery school. Maybe it’s not going to make me a VP in a year but if I can balance work and family, I’m ahead of the game.

Hopefully that still qualifies me for rebel dad membership.

I have a lot more to say about this but I’m going to go shower, shave and suck down coffee and start thinking about my day.