The Rise of the SAHD

More and more men are staying at home with the kids while their wives work outside the home, and the New York Times is ON IT.

When people ask what he does, Mr. Langley could say artist — he gives the buildings and landscapes he paints expressive personalities of their own — but he has just begun trying to sell his work. Other fathers in similar situations say they often tell white lies: They are retired, they are consultants, they work at home.

Mr. Langley generally goes with “stay-at-home dad.”

“That’s what I call myself,” he said over lunch at a restaurant in Rye, the other tables filled with groups of women. “I wouldn’t say I like it.”

What response does he get?

“There’s usually a long pause,” he said.

The article focuses on women working in finance — an industry where one salary can often support an entire family, making the stay-at-home thing actually possible — where mothers with stay-at-home spouses working are still less than 2% of the workforce. Since 1980, however, the numbers have increased tenfold.

Wall Street moms aside, the best part of this piece are the dads in the comments, who point out that 1. try living off one salary when you aren’t making millions, 2. SAHD-ing can be isolating and SAD without the social support women often have when they stay at home, and 3. it can be even tougher to reenter the workforce for men, as women taking time off to be with their kids is more socially acceptable.

Either way, I want a SAHD. SAHH? Preferably an independently wealthy one, so I don’t have to work either. And instead of a SAHM and a SAHD we will just be people who hang out, with their kids, and somehow don’t have existential crises. It will be great.

Photo: AdmlCrunch

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