In May 2003, on his way home from a week-long vacation, Not-Yet-Laid-Off Dad came across a discarded copy of Newsweek. He looked at the cover story, “She Works, He Doesn’t”—which featured testimony from pink-slipped fathers who had become full-time childcare providers—and thought: “Looks pretty sweet to me.”
Three days later, his monolithic employer chopped the “Not-Yet” off his title.
He spent much of the next several months chasing his toddler around playgrounds (when the weather was cooperative) and bookstores (when it was not). And to help fill the hours of stress-induced insomnia, he started a blog. The layoff was long, demoralizing, and laden with stress and penury, but it also gave him 15 months of hands-on parenting that he’d never trade.
Currently biding his time between layoffs, LOD lives in New York City and splits his time between the Bounce House and the Bert Sanctuary. To delve deeper, read this.
