Why the Convention is Important

Posted on 22. Oct, 2007 by rebel in General

I was asked by the reporter the other day what it was that made the At-Home Dad Convention so special. My answer: it’s inspiring to be around guys who so clearly want to be great at the whole parenting thing. They live to make the most of their gig as a dad.

This sticks out particularly because of this piece in Slate last week on how tiresome actually interacting with kids can be (thanks, Greg, for flagging). I’m not the Slate piece will make any sense whatsoever to the convention guys. Playing as drudgery? They don’t buy it.

I don’t know if I’ve said so on the blog, but I’m taking a pass on KC this year. One of the realities of working full-time is that the weekends with the family become that much more precious, and I’m not quite ready to voluntarily take a pass on that time. But my thoughts will be with you guys that do make the trip.

[BONUS. From the archives, a piece I wrote three years ago but never sold about why the convention is so worthwhile. 'A Vaccination Against Isolation.']

2 Responses to “Why the Convention is Important”

  1. fearofcommitments

    22. Oct, 2007

    I couldn’t agree with you more. Fatherhood is tiresome, but it’s also so rewarding. I think I get more tired interacting with my baby on a weekend day than I do at a full day in the office. My hat is off to full-time fathers and mothers. Even my wife agrees that it’s easier in the office than at home with the baby. We love our son and he’s the best thing that’s happened to us. But parenthood isn’t lying on the sand at the beach. It’s more like digging sand but getting the reward of being able to take a dip in the ocean.

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  2. Evan

    23. Oct, 2007

    I’ve just always assumed that every parent is different and has his or her own threshold for entertaining the kids, just as kids are all different and require differing levels of attention.

    Certainly we’ve all seen parents that are just plain lazy sacks of $%#@… but having been both a “working” and at-home-dad, my experience has been that from a very young age my two boys and I needed to find a balance of play time and alone time that worked for all of us.

    I suppose that to an outsider it may look like we spend part of our day ignoring each other, but over the years that’s the balance that keeps all three of us sane and happy with each other at the end of each day.

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