HANGING WITH HIS BOYS

Overall good guy Dave stopped by
the home to help us remove wallpaper
just after we moved in a year ago.

Last night, I sat and stared at the screen for long spells, waiting for some type of thought to emerge. 

Earlier in the evening, the Little One had peed in my face as he slept during a diaper change. Before that he had spit up on my pants, and then my left shoulder. When I switched to the right shoulder, he repeated the act, leaving me with matching white patches to either side of my head.

I wasn't in the mood to joke about that stuff, though. I was grouchy, thanks in large part to a stiff back. Just a totally blah kind of mood.

Until a saw this piece about my old friend Dave that ran in the Daily Mustang, a news site in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. Dave, my former resident assistant and a fellow hard-core Rhody Ram fan, is a guy who embraces fatherhood.

According to the story, Dave is among the 158,000 stay-at-home in the United States. That figure is up more than 60 percent from 2005, according to the U.S. Census.

Yes, part of that has to do with the economy. Not so for Dave though. He and Cortney made the conscious choice years ago that he would stay home with the kids (they now have two boys). I'm definitely jealous.

I enjoy my job, and I certainly have professional goals that I want to achieve. That said, I'd love to take a crack at being a stay-at-home dad.

From previous conversations, I know Dave digs it. He also finds time for things beyond Daddy life. In fact, last year he started his own business, Rain Barrel Guys, which specializes in recycled rainwater collection barrels. See, still finding ways to put that URI College of Environment and Life Sciences education to work! 

It's cool that Dave is doing his thing and being a great Dad to his boys. The thought of he and the boys trekking out to the park to hang… well, that's just good stuff right there.