37 To One

I felt a bit outnumbered at G's singalong group this lunchtime. There were 38 babies, 37 mums and me. Usually there are one or two dads around, but not today.

I've clearly gone native since becoming a stay-at-home dad, as I took in some chocolate brownies to share around. The fact that none of the 37 mums had done any homebaking only made me stand out even more. I think this was probably in a good way, because everyone who had a piece said it tasted great. "It's all about substituting half the caster sugar for some soft dark brown sugar," I heard myself saying. At that moment, as I looked around the room, it occurred to me that I'd never really expected my life to turn out quite like this.

After the singing, G was playing on the floor with a boy of about her age. The boy had been stroking G's hair, but then picked up a drum and accidentally hit G in the face with it. This led to lots of tears. I tried to explain to G that the only way to deal with boys who do that sort of thing is to punch them back, but to no avail. Maybe that's a skill we can work on for the future.

1 comments:

Hackney_bloke said...

As an erstwhile stay at home dad, I used to love being one of the girls. Initially I felt like the biggest klutz around. Never had the right stuff in the bag, didn't ever see to have enough hands, and was generally not as good as my wife had been at all that stuff. But after a while it started to click and there's a great sense of accomplishment.
Plus, once you get over the hang up of being one of the few guys, it's a great life. I saw my saw learn to walk, talk and develop hugely in the eighteen months I looked after him. It was probably one of the most satisfying things I've ever done.
Now we're on to number two. I'm working from home but have less timemto get involved in the fun stuff like singing classes, baking and coffee mornings.
You're very lucky.