My Time as a Stay at Home Dad

I passed my real estate exam in February of 2024, but didn't get my license until
October 2025. I wanted to make sure that my youngest daughter was going to be able
to get into a preschool/daycare before I committed to real estate.

Let's go back 4 years……… I had recently resigned from my teaching job and we were
pregnant with our 3rd child. My wife and I had talked about staying home before but
never too serious, just more of a dream. I remember coming home and telling my wife I
saw this or that at work and it made me want to be home with our children. I always
thought that it would be so awesome to somehow be home with my children cherishing
this short time of childhood.

My wife was an Instructional Coach (teacher to teachers, is how I explain it) at the time,
so we looked over our finances and figured out that I could stay home. Of course it was
scary because you never know what could come up. But luckily my wife and I aren't big
spenders so we knew we could do it.

So the adventures began, our oldest was in kindergarten and our son was 3 at the time
so I had him during the days until February when our youngest daughter arrived. One
memorable thing I remember doing with our son, we had some half wine barrels that
didn’t have flowers in them yet so I started a huge fire in one and gave him the hose to
put it out. He thought that was soooo cool! I thought “well I’m teaching him something
and having fun”!

The next year he went to Pre-K so it was our newborn and myself hanging out
everyday. We would run errands, clean the house, eat, take naps, just enjoying your
everyday mundane things. It was just the best to be so lucky to stay home and get
those moments. As time went on we could tell she yearned for time with other children,
so we made the choice to actively find her a fun and learning environment for her to be
a part of. My time as a stay at home dad came to a bittersweet end.

I also found that I was ready to be back around other people my age and have a
different purpose. As I get back into the work field I wonder did I cherish my time as a
stay at home dad as much as I should have? I hope that they remember that I was
always there for them when they needed me, whether they were sick, hungry, or just
excited to have me pick them up from school everyday.

As a Broker I have been able to continue doing a lot of those things with the freedom it
allows. Like last week when our children were sick I was able to be there for them. I
have missed a few pickups and will continue to miss somethings but I’m thankful to
have family to help in those cases.
I write this to remind myself and others to cherish the season of life that you are in! I
would have doubts about what I was doing and my wife would always say this is the
season we're in, cherish it!