Since I’ve become a stay-at-home dad, I’ve gotten the same old questions repeatedly: What do you do all day? How do you stay busy? What does your wife think? Are you even looking for a job? The joke of it is that I am busier now, as a stay-at-home dad, than I ever was when I worked outside the home.

The fact is a stay-at-home dad is not lying on the couch living a life of leisure. I’ve got kids and a houseful of responsibilities and chores. If you are the stay-at-home dad that, like me, works from home as well, you have double the responsibilities. Not only are you handling childcare and maintaining the home you are also working from home just as you used to do at the office. When you were working from an office, though, you didn’t have kids, and pets, and homework, and house work responsibilities as well. You were responsible for one thing: your work.

Now, as a stay-at-home dad who also works from home, I’m kept constantly busy. Not only are there the usual responsibilities of my business, there’s also childcare to take care of. My kids’ homework is a big-time demand. Not only am I answering questions on how to do homework, I am having to re-learn the lessons of my youth as well. Who remembers how to solve for “x” from high school algebra? I sure didn’t. The amount of time spent by a stay-at-home dad on homework is remarkable.

I’m also responsible, as a stay-at-home dad, for maintaining our home. This means doing the grocery shopping, stocking the refrigerator, even buying feminine products, which I’m unfamiliar with (and a little embarrassed about, frankly!). I’ve learned more about what cuts of meat are good and how to find the best grapefruit than I ever thought I would. As a stay-at-home dad, I’ve learned my way around cookbooks and figured out the differences between boiling and simmering, baking and broiling, and slicing and dicing.

As a stay-at-home dad, of course, being responsible for keeping up the house also means cleaning, doing laundry, and keeping things organized. This is no small task because I’m doing these chores while keeping an eye on the kids, helping with homework, breaking up fights over who wants to watch what on television, and so forth. There’s never a dull moment.

The idea that a stay-at-home dad doesn’t have a busy schedule or is in some way the less productive parent is an outdated idea based upon an old belief that the dad has to be out of the home earning a paycheck. Take it from me—I feel more productive and exhausted at the end of the day than I ever did when working from an office!

For the stay-at-home dad, the question is not “What do you do all day?” The question should be “What don’t you do? When do you breathe?” Because the life of a stay-at-home dad is never without activities and responsibilities.

Reference: http://BusinessTM.com/about/erik-cornella/