SillyDad.com!

Recently I was in a discussion with a Stay at Home Dad with one child. He stressed over the fact that he felt guilty if he had to leave the child for a moment and go do something.. like swap out the laundry, do dishes, or make a phone call. The little child would just sit there by themselves and he felt guilty.

First off, he shouldn’t feel guilty and the child could use some alone time. Children aren’t going to be neglected if you leave them for a few seconds. But when I had one child I felt the same things. Most of your day you had to spend reading to them, playing blocks with them, and walking them around. All your time was completely spent on them.

Now that I have 4 children things have become much easier in that sense. Yes, in another sense it is harder because there are just simply more of them, but I don’t have to be right there all the time. My oldest is in kindergarden and so 3 of the kids stay at home with me all day. I put up a gate and close off a couple of rooms so the kids can play and run around. They are all completely content with one another and actually play hard, all the while I am in the next room over doing dishes, cooking, or cleaning up the kitchen. This gives me added opportunity to get other things done without feeling I am neglecting any of them.

I am always earshot away so I know what tricks they are up to and yet I don’t have to be a participant in their game of blocks, or when they play house.

So don’t laugh when somebody says it is easier with more children than with just one, because in a sense it is…

-sillydad

This entry was posted on Friday, February 17th, 2006 at 9:40 am and is filed under In Depth. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.