Tory Johnson: Stay-at-Home Dads

Oct. 3, 2005 — -- As Lynette on "Desperate Housewives" gets into her new job, her husband Tom tries to adjust to life at home caring for the kids. When roles reverse, real life couples often face unique and unexpected challenges.

Since every relationship needs a healthy dose of respect to balance work and home, there are some important issues to keep in mind.

Don't treat dad like a baby sitter. I don't mean any disrespect to baby sitters. In fact, my kids' baby sitter has worked for our family for more than six years and she has my greatest admiration and respect. Even though the work is being done in your home on a personal level, it's a form of an employee/employer relationship. Typically, mom gives instructions about her wishes to the baby sitter about how she expects the kids to be handled when she's at work. Mom decides what to feed them, when to feed them, bath time, play time, school work -- the whole nine yards.

Dad is not a baby sitter. He is not an employee. Mom is not the employer or boss. You're both parents who've jointly decided that dad will stay home with the kids, whether it's for economic reasons, for parenting reasons or both. Dad deserves to be treated as such.

Even with the best intentions, sometimes when mom works outside of the home, she becomes frustrated at how things are going at home -- whether it's the meals the kids are eating, the frequency of cleaning or the overall schedule. Even though Lynette opted to let out a mouse to make her point about the need for Tom to clean, there are other options to make your point.

Create an ongoing dialogue. It's rare when two people will perform the same tasks completely equally. Just like any kind of work, parenting and household work is subject to scrutiny by observers and outsiders.

Together you should decide how things around the house will be handled -- household chores and the kids' schedules. But also remember, that since dad's the one doing it, he should have considerable say. He shouldn't be expected to take mom's orders, but he will hopefully take mom's thoughts and desires into consideration as he figures out his routine. Similarly, mom wouldn't expect dad to give her orders on how to handle her work outside the home, as it's assumed that she's capable of making those day-to-day decisions.