Blogging Parent

Web Worker Daily recently published an article how “How To Manage Your Kids in the Home Office“.

Though I’m not a Stay-At-Home Dad, the pointers provided would definitely help me if I ever decide to become one. I guess it also applies to whenever I’m working at home on projects and other last minute matters. For the time being, I usually wait for my son to go to bed first before I start on my work. Or if it’s on my off days, then I’ll send him to infant care first before going home to work.

Technorati Tags: kids, productivity, sahd, stay-at-home dads

- Two articles by Steve Remington of Inside Fatherhood on SAHD Burnout and how to overcome it. Good read even if you’re not a stay-at-home dad yet. Then you’ll know the issues that you might face and think of ways to overcome them.

- An interesting way to make your son show some responsibility … just by making him the chef of the day in making the soup for the whole family and it includes deciding and buying the ingredients. Hmmm … might try that with Matthew when he’s older.

- Here’s something about raising bilingual children. In Singapore, most of us are bilingual with English and our Mother Tongue (be it Mandarin, Tamil or Malay). However, I’m one of those who didn’t really study that hard during Mother Tongue lessons and my Mandarin is not that wonderful. I’m able to converse with someone, but I’m not able to write. And it’s the same for Wendy. Hopefully, Matthew will be able to do both languages well when he goes to school, but then again, we only speak to him in English when we’re at home. (via Parent Hacks)

- Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying
15 questions that all soon-to-be married couples should ask before marrying. For Wendy and myself, we didn’t exactly sit down and ask each other questions, but I guess in the course of everything, we did, somehow, ask each other the majority of the questions listed.

Technorati Tags: child development, languages, learning, parenting, stay-at-home dad

Saw this post on Inside Fatherhood about Stay-At-Home Dads (SAHDs). In the post, he provides links to 5 articles he has previously written that would help dads make the decision if they should become a SAHD. But his best advice given is “Just Do It”.

However, I haven’t convinced Wendy if I should become a Stay-At-Home Dad, but, more importantly, myself. It’s a very big decision to make. There’ll be the financial consideration and that would be the biggest consideration for us. In addition, there’ll also be a matter of taking Matthew out of infant care and the lack of interaction with other kids though that can be reduced by joining a SAHD support group. To a smaller extent, there would be the question of ‘face’ since the father is supposed to be the breadwinner of the family in our Asian context. So, there is quite a bit to think about before we can make the big decision.

And I’ll be going to borrow some books, like the ones below, to read up on becoming a SAHD.

Full time father: how to succeed as a stay at home dad Richard Hallows; editors: Richard Craze, Roni Jay Great Ambrook: White Ladder, 2004 Call No.: English 305.33649 HAL Click here for item availability on NLB’s catalogue or here if you want to buy a copy.

The stay-at-home dad handbook Peter Baylies with Jessica Toonkel Chicago, IL: Chicago Review Press, 2004 Call No.: English 306.8742 BAY-[FAM] Click here for item availability on NLB’s catalogue or here if you want to buy a copy.

Stay-at-home dads: the essential guide to creating the new family Libby Gill New York: Plume, 2001 Call No.: English 649.1 GIL-[FAM] Click here for item availability on NLB’s catalogue or here if you want to buy a copy.

Technorati Tags: books, parenting, sahd, stay-at-home dad

- Dying to Stay Home?
A 2002 study done in the US reports that stay-at-home dads are more prone to dying early from heart attacks. Payment is required to access the archived full-text article on The Washington Post. However, I managed to find a news report on CNN that is free. Even with this report, I would still gladly be a stay-at-home dad. Something to plan and look forward to, maybe?
(via Inside Fatherhood)

- Ways to Get Your Kids Reading
A good listing of ways to get your children to read. It doesn’t have to always be reading in relation to studies as it might instead kill his/her interest in reading. You should definitely allow your children to read books for fun and be a good example by reading yourself. Think we need to do more reading than watching television so as to motivate and encourage Matthew to read more. Thankfully, he loves books and visiting the library.
(via Weary Parent)

Technorati Tags: health, reading, stay-at-home dads