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Full time dad

In my conversation today with one of my female co-worker, she told me how hard it is to be a female engineer and a mother at the same time. I admit it whole-heartedly. She is just two year older than me, has been working in this company for more than four years as an automation engineer, and also a mother of one and a half years old daughter.

Not like in Indonesia where we can afford maid to do household work, families in US do not usually have that kind of luxuries. So becoming a working mother really means a double job, that a woman has to work at least 8 to 5 everyday, then rushing to take her daughter from day-care (who charge a late fee of $10/minutes if parents pickup their kids later than 6 pm), preparing dinner for whole family, etc, etc.

Even worse, the 8 to 5 schedule is sometimes just not enough. Like today, we have to work on weekend to get jobs done on time. The nature of our industry also requires traveling to customer sites within US, from West Coast to East Coast. Even if company policy tries to be as flexible as possible, sometimes traveling is just unavoidable.

Then why just not quit the job? Wives earning more than husbands is not uncommon situation. In that situation it means that a woman can't just quit and be a full-time mom even if she wants to.

She cracked a joke that her husband always wanted to be a full-time dad if she earns more :), just like one of our other co-worker's husband who doesn't work. What ?? Tell me about feminism, woman emancipation, and gender, still, full-time dad concept is a very intriguing idea for me. Can't imagine that I have to work 8 to 5, going home with exhausted feeling, then finding my husband waiting for me at home without him have to work as hard as me. Off course it'll be nice to have our dinner prepared, but it's still hard for me to imagine that :p

I really don't mind if I should marry someone who doesn't earn as much as I do. But switch position to be the working-mom and the full-time dad sounds very very interesting, hahaha. I need to give thumbs up for couples that can work that roles out. So what do you think guys, to become a full-time dad :p ? Is that disturb your man's ego :) ?

Comments

Anonymous said…
:)

i think u know someone who did that ;)
remember?
Anonymous said…
Ha ha hi hi. For me absolutely no.
L. Pralangga said…
been there and done that.. however, I might not be the good performer, though the kids seemed to be much relieved when seeing their mommie back.. :-)

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