The Story of DadNCharge

People say all the time "You stay at home? Was that by choice?" While I realize that sometimes the economy being so bad has forced some men to stay at home (those lucky dogs) let me share my story. My wife and I always planned on me staying at home. I am the one with an abundance of patience. I am the one that loved kids enough that I wanted to become a teacher and be around them all the time.

Before I became dadncharge I was working at a high school, I was tenured and I had seven years of service in a high school district with ten total years of teaching. I coached freshman girls basketball and loved every minute of it. I got to teach my passion in life, drawing and photography and things couldn't have been better. We lived in a suburb of Chicago in a brand new home that we customized to our liking. It was our first house together. We were living the dream.

My wife is a career woman and someone who was convinced that she would never have kids. I changed all that. She was/is a rising star in the corporate world and I knew I would do whatever it took to help her make that happen. We had our first child, a son and the first grandson in our family, Adam, in 2005. My wife and I continued to work and on the weekends we would say to our awesome day care provider "We'll try to stick to the schedule and not screw it up too much"

Soon my wife had the baby bug again and in 2007 we had our beautiful daughter, Sarah Jane. My wife and I continued to work and we would witness something we had seen for the first time with our kids only to be told on Monday by the day care person "Oh, she's been doing that for awhile now". After that we asked her to just pretend she wasn't doing anything special or out of the ordinary so we could witness it for the "first time". Each time we picked the kids up at the end of the day and asked how they were doing our day care provider would say "Oh, they did good."

In June of 2008, my wife accepted a new job in her hometown, close to her parents, and we decided it would be best for me to stay at home with the two kids. My wife is awesome. She is the best organizer and the perfect project manager but, she also has her particular way of doing things as I also have my way of doing things. Knowing this I asked her "If I stay at home who is going to be in charge?" She said "You are. You will be the Dad in Charge." "So you are saying I am a D.I.C ?" I said. "Yes, you will be a D.I.C." I started writing things down that the kids said or did that was funny. Soon, I discovered this blogging thing quite by accident. My wife bought me the vanity plate and in NY State they gave just enough letters to fully express what my new job was. This is how DadNCharge came to be.

In December of 2010, we had our final child, Heidi. We have been blessed with great kids. One of the perks of being at home is being able to see the kids grow and watch their personalities emerge. Now I also don't have to worry about missing anything because I am right there day in and day out raising the kids. So I tell the people that ask if it was by choice "Yes, and it was the greatest decision I have ever made about a career." Our kids aren't going to be little forever. I am just glad that I have this chance to be with them while they are.