Home Office With a Changing Table

You know those dads who get up, fight traffic getting to work, grind it out all day, fight traffic coming home and barely see their families? 

That's not me.

I'm a new breed of working dad, blessed and cursed by the rise of high speed internet, cheap availability of smartphones and a digital age where just about anything not directly involving physical labor can be done sitting on a slowly expanding backside staring at a computer screen.

My morning starts when my alarm clock (which sounds exactly like my 10-month-old screaming for a diaper change and a bottle) randomly chooses a time to sound.  I roll out of bed, wondering what happens at 6 AM that is so exciting that my kids refuse to sleep through it.  I grab my cell phone which is never more than a few feet from me in case of the occasional "Oh, @&!^%" call that comes in the middle of the night from work and head out to do the duty (or doody in this case).   I put my baby down again after his diaper change and a bottle, feeding my delusion that he'll go back to sleep and let me catch another 30 minutes (I'm batting about .017 with that delusion).  About the time my hand touches the door knob, he announces in his not-so-subtle way that he's done with the whole 'sleep' thing and it's time to go downstairs and play.

My work day now starts.  After sitting down in the playroom, and checking which toy the baby is going find entertaining for the next few minutes, I fire up the smartphone, and check my work e-mails.  I have an office in my home, next to the play room that I work out of, equipped with WiFi, 3 different computers and dual phone lines and fax, but at this time in the morning, I'm pretty confident that if the west coast hasn't called me about it yet, I won't need to man the Bat Cave until at least 7.  I'm able to read through my e-mails, check on the latest projects, review documents etc from my cell phone, all while making sure the baby isn't successful trying to stuff a football or something else into his mouth.

By 6:20, my oldest son (4 years) is headed downstairs.  He'd be downstairs earlier except we set his clock back 20 minutes back when he was the first to wake up in the morning.  Usually about 10 minutes after that, son #2 (2 years) is up and I have to get him up from his crib.  He's old enough to be in a kid sized bed, but he's Mr. Ask Forgiveness Not Permission, and I'm not ready to go investigating crashes and bangs before the sun comes up, and the crib helps contain the chaos.

Now the fun begins.  My oldest, being a creature of habit, ensures everyone gets their vitamins, and then it's time to defrost Eggos.  I grew up with waffles out of the toaster being crispy and needing syrup.  For my boys, the only acceptable way to eat an Eggo is defrosted, room temperature and plain.  Kids are weird.  By 7AM, the kids are fed, lunch is made (if it's a school day) teeth are brushed, and the Cartoons are allowed to begin.  Judge me if you want, but once the idiot-box is turned on, I can actually sit down, give my attention to work while still keeping line-of-sight and an ear open for trouble with the kids.  My wife will make her way down anytime between 7 and 8 and that's when I hand off the kid baton for at least the next hour.    The system isn't perfect, but my wife gets some extra rest that she'll need running around to the various kid functions, the kids are fed, dressed and ready to move, and I'm 3 steps form answering any early morning work problems that might arise.  Honestly, the routine wears on me, jump-starting my day at a random time, and then having to multitask work and kid-care for the next 60-90 minutes, but I used to wake up at 4:30 each morning and commute 55 miles each way to work so if it sounds like I'm complaining, just pass me the coffee and I'll shut up.

The rest of the day is a juggling act.  Most of it is spent staring at the computer, taking care of whatever needs to be done for my company or our the client, but it's interspersed with various kid related activities.  No day is ever the same, and it takes a new skill being able to drown out crying from the other room while focusing on report or speed-changing a diaper between conference calls because my wife isn't back from picking up someone from an activity and the baby woke up early.  It's multitasking to a whole new level, it's stressful and frustrating, but I'm an active, daily part of my kid's lives, and that's pretty cool.