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Being Dada

A few months ago I made the decision to stop traveling. I took a massive pay cut, am still adjusting to life at home, and am really searching for my calling or purpose. The one right decision that I made was to spend more time with my son and wife. I did not want to regret not being able to watch my son grow and I wanted to be an influence in his life like my dad has always been in mine.
That said, there are a few lessons learned that I've developed as I've started adjusting to "civilian" life. I will tell you that I am an ant's hair away from driving the Honda Odyssey with the complimentary Accord as its backup. If there was layaway for Ferragamo's, I'd be taking advantage of it. Thomas Pink, Ted Baker, and Brooks Brothers have not seen me in a while. I'm sure Simon Malls is taking a hit because of the revenue that I am not contributing right now. However, all of that is replaced when I hold my son and hear him say "airplane" for the first time while pointing at one in the sky. (Don't get me wrong - I still miss the income).
Anyway, I'll start my lessons learned and probably add to them as I continue to learn more about my wife, my son, and the dynamics of working on the other side of the fence:
  1. My wife is the CEO, CFO, and COO of the house. That's life.
  2. Do not try to reengineer any household processes. The change management is a b*tch.
  3. This isn't 1950 anymore. It doesn't matter how much money you make, expect to split house and kid duties straight down the middle.
  4. You won't wonder why older people go to bed at 8 PM anymore.
  5. Build a snack repertoire and keep them in every static and mobile location. Animal crackers, Wheat Thins, Chex Mix, Teddy Grahams, Goldfish, etc... You will be happy and your kid will love you.
  6. Buy a Dust Buster. Just trust me on this one.
  7. Infants and toddlers don't recognize Daylight Savings Time.
  8. Find that DVD that buys you 20-30 minutes of silence and sanity (from your toddler yelling)
  9. You will never look at peas and corn in the same way again.
  10. Skype, Google Chat, and multimedia messages can never replace hugging and holding the real thing.
That's it for now. The next step is to do or be something cool before my son is old enough to ask the question of what I do.

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