Stay At Home Dads

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Just a few weeks back I was reading a rather interesting article in a local magazine. It spoke about a subject that till recently was not such an acceptable social trend in our society, but things surely seems to have changed with the turn of the century. Well, the article was about "stay -at-home dads". Let me try and give a bit of insight into the concept. Its about men who are not at work everyday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and they seem to be growing in number as well as popularity (conceded Margaret Thatcher was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979-1990). According to British Government statistics, 20,000 men in the UK embrace househusbandhood. Amazing! Well one can check out either www.rebeldad.com or www.slowlane.com for further details. Once I was through with that piece my reaction was perhaps a bit different than others. Oh wow! Is this official now? This is what I uttered to myself.
I had started my architectural career with a high profile interior designer. While she used to be very busy meeting people & making presentations around the globe, the man of the household used to stay perched at home most of the time except when he was taking the children out for riding or private classes. We used to secretly refer to him as Mr. Househusband. After all in the early nineties a househusband was not a very common sighting in urban India. So quite justifiably all those "hiss hiss & huss huss" kept our rumor mill grinding. As time passed, we realized that to be an urban househusband one has to have zillions of money, decent enough to sustain a golf lifestyle (at least in urban India). Financed out of wife's purse is definitely not easy to come not unless you happen to belong to one of the few places like in the northeast India where you might be lucky! Women there traditionally works hard to earn the bread for the family, she also earns the wine for her husband while the husbands eat, drink, gamble and make merry!
It is True, there are instances of one partner (read the husband) opting out of work as the other had more growth opportunity. It must be difficult being a househusband as compared to his female counterpart when one considers the aspects of parenting, the social pressures (like answering questions like what do u do for living etc.)
Will some one as successful as the Pepsi Co head will be comfortable with a househusband who keeps himself busy with charity organizations and social commitments? Probably, anyone might hazard a guess! However unmasculine it might sound, Yours truly has had waited for such an offer; which never came through...

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