Intro

OK

Now I finally have to step up to the starting gate and... well, start.  This is the intro Post.

At the time of this writing I have two girls age 2 and a bit and 5 and a bit.  From the very beginning I had decided I was going to be an active Daddy.  From the start I took time off from work to be at home and BE with my girl and then my girls.  At some times it was full FULL time, seven days a week.  Others, it dropped down to two days a week.  But those are week days mind you, not the two weekend days.  Although I dont want to disparage the evening Father or the weekend Father, I wanted to have long quantity time with my kids.  At this point in time, the professors of pedagogue  say that quantity is really the better choice over quality time.  In other words it is best to spend hours with your young kids or babies rather than a few good minutes, even an hour or two is not enough.  It was my intention to take part in all parts of child raising equally with my wife as best I could, biology excepted.

Let me state some reasons why I wanted to do this, from the small personal, up to the macro societal level.
1. Personally I wanted to be an integral part of my daughters life from the beginning.  Although most people dont have memories before they are 3 or 2, they say that the bond is established between parent and child from the beginning, from birth.  Excuse me if it sounds arrogant, but I wanted my touch, my sound and smell to be stamped on my babies brain equally with my wife`s.  I didnt want to be second in the chain to Mommy. 

2.  I guess I am somewhat of a feminist, I want equality for women.  But I guess I am a masculinist (is that the right word?) as I want equality for men also.  I want women to be equal with men and men to be equal with women, biology excepted.  If women should have the right to any jobs that were traditionally men's jobs, likewise, men should have the right to all the jobs that were traditionally thought of as "women`s work".  If women¨s work was traditionally at home, but now she has been emancipated and goes to a job, well then lets emancipate the men and let them be at home to take care of the kids.  Whats good for the goose....

3.  This will be good for Society in general.  You know, I really think men and women have to walk a mile in the others shoes.  I must say, I do believe men will behave differently in situations due to the different chemicals going through their bodies, IE testosterone, too much "fight" and not enough "flight" and we have to put ourselves in the situations of the other gender.  Seriously, if more men were at home taking care of their kids they would not be interested in going out to fight in some war, or to fight of any kind.  I have to ask the question, if Assad of Syria had stayed at home taking care of his kids more would he really be fighting off tooth and nail "enemies of the State" now?  No way.  Because on first reports of children being killed by any side he would have said, "Whoa whoa, whoa, wait a minute, some small helpless toddlers and babies were killed?  Oh, lets stop this nonsense and come to the table together".  Call me a softy, but to see a tiny tiny baby, helpless, wriggling its little arms and legs around and only wanting some nourishment and then some sleep and even to see a small toddler smiling so happily just to have some small little toy, it would break your heart anytime later to personally see harm come to said baby or toddler, be it your own or whomever.  Men's emancipation back to the home would definitely be a good thing for the world.

Let me say, I know I am not the first.  In the USA it might even be a movement of men back to the home to take care of children.  I was quite surprised how many "daddy" blogs there already are.  As much as I really dont like jumping on the bandwagon or a trend, I had to add my voice and my experience to this "movement".  Because if it is just a trend, there is a chance it will become passe or change or even disappear.  It cannot disappear and it has to develop past being a subculture.  For it to do that it takes a tipping point for it to be accepted by the mainstream and to be accepted as normal.  Has that tipping point been reached yet? I dont think so.  Thus I would like to add my voice and experience as we all try to tip this daddy bandwagon into the mainstream.  

I call it Daddy 40 % or more to signify the least amount of WEEK days we should be home with the kids as fathers, two days.  Home with them all day. You can then work a weekend day to make up, but only one.  There should be one weekend day in which we, the whole family, are together too.   That said, I dont want to alienate men who just cant do that.  Their jobs are strict not at home day jobs Monday through Friday.  IE men teachers, who are doing wonderful work by giving children someone to look up to in the school, just cant be at home for a weekday.  Understandably.  ON THE OTHER HAND, there are a lot of jobs where you could probably go in early on Friday, for example, and leave at noon and be with your kids for nearly the full day if they arent in school yet.  Try it.  I think the workaholism of the US and expanding throughout the world to the point of oneupmanship (oh well Im working 60 hours a week and have no time for anything) is not a good thing and should be reversed.  C¨mon, our kids and all of our futures are at stake.  You gotta stop and think why you are working so hard?  Because you want enough money for good things for the family and your kids, Right?  Well, wait a sec, if the good things are TIME with your kids which you are sacrificing by working too much, then you have defeated the purpose.  But that is another tangent which I dont want to get on here right now.  

Final points, the grammar and style errors are mine.  I do a lot of writing, but I still have a lot of mistakes.  Misunderstandings are my fault.  I write in a certain style which if you dont understand it, then I should change it.  I understand what I am saying, but if nobody else does, that's a mistake of mine. However, I was hoping that posts could be more like little stories with me as narrator, rather than perfect prose. 

I really can not accept sexist behavior and comments.  Nor any other such degradations of human beings.  If you strongly disagree with my viewpoints you can voice your opinion, but in a polite, diplomatic fashion.  If you hate what I am advocating, please start your own counter blog, and invite me onto your list.  Yet, I am not perfect, most certainly not, if you see my writing as sexist please point it out.  

And, for now my blog setup will be really boring and non existent.  My friend said dont worry about that, it will get better over time.  Better to start and learn as you go along instead of doing nothing.  He also said no one is going to be reading this anyway.  Ha ha, that's OK too.  I wanted my voice to get out there.  Maybe by the time I do get a couple readers I will have mastered creating a half way decent set up.  I wish.  

Thanks for your understanding.