Take Your Husband to Work Day

Thursday, April 26 was Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day. Our family celebrated in the opposite way, however -- Craig stayed home from work.

So we didn't expose Isaac to the world of work in general, show him where his dad works in particular, or "create an opportunity for girls and boys to share and communicate their expectations for the future" (as the very odd mission statement of Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day says). Instead, Craig experienced the world of the stay-at-home mom.

I'm being a little glib -- Craig takes care of Isaac every Friday when I go to work, so he knows a little bit about staying at home with a baby. However, one mainstay of stay-at-home parenting is the child-oriented activity -- ironically, going out of the home to music class, storytime, swimming lessons, whatever. And although Craig always takes Isaac to do the weekly grocery shopping on Fridays, they don't participate in any organized activities. So for us, Thursday was an informal "Take Your Dad to Kindergym Day." It was Craig's chance to find out what we've been doing there for the past four months.

It's actually not unusual for there to be fathers at our Kindergym class -- one dad comes along with his wife whenever he's not working (he has irregular hours at his job as an ER doctor at our local children's hospital), and another dad alternates weeks with his wife -- so Craig didn't stand out at all. There were fewer fathers when we went to play at the park afterward, but there are fewer parents in general at that park, which is usually mostly nannies.

Although I don't think it's uncommon for a father to spend a day or two a week taking care of his child, it seems less common for them to attend an organized activity together. Do you think that's true? If so, I wonder why. I think there are a variety of reasons why Craig doesn't take Isaac to any organized activities, and maybe some of them apply to other fathers. On one hand, they've only got that one day a week alone together, so Craig doesn't want to have his time with Isaac taken up with a required activity. On the flip side, they've only got that one day a week alone together, so Craig doesn't feel the pressure to get out of the house and talk to other adults!