A Day In The Life

I guess there’s a faint chance that someone will stumble across this blog because they actually do want to know what it’s like to be a stay-at-home dad, rather than how much I hate car salesmen.

‘Be Prepared’, Baden-Powell said, so here it is – the official record of a reasonably typical day with the Clark boys:

6.00am
Kate wakes me up looking surprisingly ready to go to work. She is. I see Austin on her lap and reach out to touch his face. The real Austin is in his cot so, recognising this sign for what it is, I get up and make a strong coffee.

7.00am
Austin’s turn to get up. This time he is both real and happy to see me. We celebrate with his morning bottle, followed by playtime.

8.00am
Breakfast. He works his way through Vegemite toast while I whip up some cheesy tomato scrambled egg. Apple follows, and all is consumed with zero fuss and minimal mess. I did, however, forget to have Austin practice his spoonmanship (part of our plan to get him feeding himself), but thankfully the day has two meals left in it.

9.15am
We also have a plan to halve Austin’s morning sleep to one hour. My strategy is to carve 15 minutes off each end for the next three days before going all the way. I’m sure the parenting books would agree, but there’s also a bit of self-interest involved – I also have to transition myself from two hours of ‘me time’ to just the one. It’s easy to get sucked into a few games of Stick Cricket and I’ll be in trouble with Kate if I don’t make the bed. Austin clearly understands where I’m coming from. We’ve spent the past 45 minutes playing. This eventually becomes me holding his hands while we walk around the house and, as if by magic, he heads into his nursery at precisely 9.15.

9.16am
Austin is showing all the signs of going straight to sleep. I make another coffee then, remembering that I am a house husband, use this hit not to surf the net but rather to mop the floors, empty the dishwasher, do a load of laundry, bring in the rubbish bins and call the car dealership to confirm our delivery date.

10.45am
Having showered and dressed with sufficient urgency, I enter the nursery on schedule to find Austin half-awake. As he's just a few days away from an even shorter sleep period, this is a very good thing. He now goes straight into the stroller and off to the playground, then to the supermarket. I use pedestrian crossings where possible and look both ways before crossing the road.

12.30pm
Lunch time. Today I’m attempting his first all finger-food lunch – another part of the plan to have him feeding himself. I quickly realise how much comfort there is in feeding your child a certain number of ice cubes of homemade infant meals. I overcompensate by giving him a few bits of pretty much everything I can find: celery, cheese, sausage, tomato. This is followed by pumpkin and peanut butter sandwiches (separately) and, for desert, grapes, mandarin and banana. I guess he’s not too young for tapas, as everything apart from the celery is given a fair go. Not bad for a chap with two teeth.

1.15pm
Time for his afternoon sleep so I decide to knock off my one outstanding chore. Every few days we top-up the collection of Austin’s frozen pre-made meals. Today's creation is mashed potato with salmon, peas, onion and parsley - an English classic but also good for brain development.

2.00pm
It can be a risk to leave my own lunch until the second half of Austin's sleep, but luck is on my side and I easily get through what's left of last night's pasta and an episode of the X-Files. Miraculously, I’ve never seen this one before.

3.15pm
I get Austin up. He’s been awake for 15 minutes but happily talking to himself. We read a story, have a sing-song and he works through most of his afternoon bottle. Then his arms rise up. This is not a gesture of affection but my cue to hold them so he can go for a walk. Indeed he does, and we stroll for the best part of 30 minutes around the house, out into garden and then a victory lap back around the house.

4.40pm
My turn to lead they way so he's into the stroller for a 6.5km run around Blackwattle Bay, past the Fish Market and over the ANZAC Bridge back to Rozelle. This enables me to convert 'play' time into 'me' time, but he does seem to enjoy the fresh air and harbour views.

5.15pm
Dinner. After his tapas lunch I decide to skip the finger food and opt instead for a jumbo serving of the potato-salmon dish. Austin loves it, and also races through his pear and yoghurt. This time I remember to let him take every second spoonful. This is messy and unproductive but a step in the right direction.

5.30pm
That step in the right direction has resulted in much more than the usual amount of food on the floor. I get down to clean it up and Austin begins laughing. I wipe his face with a wet flannel. Austin stops laughing. We call it even and begin a post-meal play session.

5.54pm
Kate arrives home and Austin crawls towards the door to meet her. This does the trick as his mother gives him a cuddle and then a bath.

6.45pm
Stumps are called and, following a bedtime story, we put Austin to bed and head for the gin deck.