• Home
    • About
      • Books By Jamie Harrington
      • PR Friendly
    • Shop
  • Heavy Handed Advice
    • These Things Are Better Than Your Things
      • Books That Don’t Suck
      • Places You Wish You Were
      • Vroom Vroom
    • Things Kids Do That Drive Everyone Crazy
    • Things We Do To Drive Ourselves Crazy
    • Happy Happy, Joy Joy
  • Pop Goes The Culture
    • ‘arry Pottah
    • Because, YouTube…
    • Obsessively Awesome Movies
    • Television Kills Brain Cells
    • Totally Fake News
    • Video Games Are Life
  • Delicious Food
    • Breakfast Is The Most Important Meal Of The Day
    • Death By Dessert
    • Dinner (And Also Second Dinner If You’re a Hobbitses)
    • Drink Up
    • Lunches So Good You Won’t Skip ‘Em
    • Slow Cooker Cafe
    • Snacks Make Me Happy
  • Make Me Pretty
    • Eye Makeup That Makes You Look Hot
    • LuLaLove
    • Nail Art You Wish You Could Do
    • Skincare is a BIG DEAL
  • Stuff You Won’t Make
    • Big Ridiculous Bows Texas Girls Wear In Their Hair
    • Crafts You Won’t Make
    • Crafts Your Kids Won’t Make
    • Home Decor You Will Forget To Make
↑

Totally The Bomb.com

Parenting Advice, Life Advice, Recipes, Crafts, Travel and Everything Fun!

Popular Stories

  • Disney Just Released The First Trailer For Frozen 2!
  • Toys R Us Is Back! My Kids Will Be So Excited!
  • Netflix’s New Documentary is Every Mom’s Worst Nightmare
  • People Are Saying Netflix's New Horror Movie is The Scariest They've Ever Seen
  • The Handmaid’s Tale Will Return For Season 3 In June, Naturally
  • Turns Out McDonald's French Fries Can Cure Baldness
  • Steel Magnolias Is Coming To Theaters For It's 30th Anniversary! I've Never Been Happier.
  • Dear Mom Of The Child Who Just Cut Her Own Hair

Heavy Handed Advice

I Never Expected Being A Stay-At-Home-Parent Would Be So Lonely…

1 Comment

  • Share
  • Tweet
  • Pin
626shares

Over the last few weeks I’ve become a mostly stay-at-home-dad. I’ve been working two, maybe three days a week while my wife is crushing it in her new, fancy accounting job. When my better half and I switched roles, I knew I’d keep busy. I’ve got rooms to clean, and endless stream of laundry to wash, meals to prepare, a house to maintain, but I didn’t know that I’d spend most of my time wrestling with soul-crushing loneliness.

dad taking daughter to school

I Never Expected Being A Stay-At-Home-Parent Would Be So Lonely…

If you know me, that might sound weird. I don’t like people. I don’t understand most of them. I highly value alone time…when I worked. It’s easy to long for a day off where I can just kick back and play video games, because I’ve spent five other days dealing with horrible coworkers and the many mind-numbing demands of modern life. I need that quiet solitude to think, or to not think, to read, to watch some Netflix. I love being alone.

But I’ve had enough of it.

And the day doesn’t begin that way. We start every morning in a flurry of toothbrushes, uniforms, and lunch boxes. We’re like that scene in Home Alone where the whole family is bumbling through the house trying to find their luggage and ignoring the youngest child (Sorry I forgot your snack, Kate). I kiss the wife goodbye as she leaves for another exciting day at her sweet gig. I haul the kids off, one by one, to their schools. There’s so much happening in that first hour and then, suddenly, nothing. When I leave my daughter’s school I know that I’m coming home to a dark and empty house. There’s no one to talk to. There’s nowhere to go. It’s just me. Alone. All day.

You can have too much of a good thing. I actually kind of miss arguing about politics. I miss talking sports and comics. And, God help me, I kind of miss listening to the mail carriers at my post office try and pretend they’re still not blitzed on drugs from the night before. The other day, my wife came home to find me in the front yard chatting with two moms on my street. I don’t think she’s ever witnessed a more shocking sight in her life, and she’s seen A Serbian Film.

I know my situation is nothing special. Homemakers have been holding down an empty house for a long, long time. This isn’t a pity party. I just simply didn’t see it coming. I thought I would forget my kids’ basketball practice or have some comical, appliance related mishap. But it turns out that I’m on top of the schedules and I’m great at fixing things. So it’s just me and a literal ticking of the clock as I write this. What do I do? I have no idea. But the kids will be home in three hours and the dishwasher just finished. I’ve got to get busy.

Subscribe Today

all the awesomeness direct to you.

    About Nik Holman

    Nik Holman writes publishable dad blogs and unpublishable novels. When he's not changing hearts and minds, he's watching scary movies with his wife and two kids. He reviews horror movies with his daughter for their podcast here If you want to know why A Flock Of Seagulls was an amazing band or why your politics are all wrong, check him out on Facebook

    Comments

    1. Carlita says

      I am in that same boat. Single Mom of two kids. My house is never clean because cleaning with *my* children is like trying to brush your teeth while chewing Oreos, it’s impossible. I was looking forward to starting school this month when I got a denial letter. Now I’m stuck trying to find a career that I’m uninterested in, (because that’s what school was supposed to be for). Meanwhile I bake/decorate cakes from home, but can’t remember the last time I’ve had an actual cake order. Maybe it’s due to the fact that I’m not working and couldn’t afford the website payments. So I make display cakes and post them on social media *hoping* to get someone through the door. I was working two jobs, while juggling my cake business, and being a full time college student…when suddenly my car died in the middle of the semester. I couldn’t afford to Uber to both jobs and school, so I was forced to resign my positions and drop classes. I thought once I got a car, I was gonna be working again and back in school. But my appeal letter got denied for school since they’d rather something more serious like a car wreck be the reason for me dropping classes. Its scary seeing jobs that I am overqualified for deny me a position. And jobs that a monkey could do doesn’t work around my schedule, considering the fact I don’t have babysitters to rely on so that I could work. I have to work around daycare hours. I said all that to say, it is extremely lonesome to adapt to endless house duties, with still, nothing to look forward to. Sorry for this long novel. Thanks for letting me rant.

      Reply

    Leave a Reply Cancel reply

    Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

    Subscribe Today

    all the awesomeness direct to you.
      Copyright ©2019, Totally The Bomb.com. All Rights Reserved. Site by Pixel Me Designs