At home with the child - Day one

Ádi is my son, he'll be 1 on February 21st.

During this time, I've looked after him many times, sometimes for a few hours, sometimes for whole days. I've taken him for walks countless times, taken him to the health visitor, taken him to the doctor, but the main thing is that every time we were together, it was a positive, calm experience for me.

Yesterday, it turned out I had another one of those days where I had to look after Ádi all day. I've had this thought in my head for a long time, that I could easily, very easily, go on GYES (childcare allowance), meaning I would stay at home with the child for an extended period.

Usually, if a thought keeps recurring in my head, sooner or later I write it down. This was also the case with this "staying at home with the child" thing, which I finally wrote about in a Facebook post yesterday.

I feel it's unnecessary to write down again what I already formulated yesterday. And I consider it completely unnecessary to start explaining here now, "ohh and ahh, well, I didn't mean it that way" because everyone will interpret an written text as they wish.

In that particular post, I wrote about how much I love being at home with the child, and that I don't understand why this isn't good or enough for mothers, because it's good for me, it would be enough for me.

Then, as usually happens, came the public outcry, but even more terrible was the anger of the mothers, in which I was essentially told that I could go to hell, and what was I blabbering about after a few hours spent at home, I should try it for a longer period, and if I tried it for even just 1 week, then we could come back to how fantastic this home-schooling thing is.

And those women were right.

I can't give an opinion without going deep into it and experiencing what it's like to stay at home with the child for, say, a month,

because it's one thing to get on a carousel in an amusement park for 3 minutes, but if you had to sit on it for, say, 5 days, that certain experience would be quite different. I gathered something like this from the mothers' remarks, and then I decided, well, let's see. Let's see what it's like to stay at home with the child and look after him 24/7.

Then, of course, as usually happens, childcare is just the basics, this doesn't complete the picture; the mothers threw at me, okay, parenting, but there's something else besides that. There's the laundry, cleaning, washing dishes, cooking for the child and for yourself, and if I'm done with all that, then we'll see how much time I have left for working out and generally maintaining my body.

To be honest, just writing this down was pretty crappy, but now it doesn't matter, I'll see through what I've committed to.

I will stay at home with the child for 30 days, I will do everything Reni used to do, and at the end of the 30 days, I will write another post about how much of a sunny Miami beach staying at home with the child ultimately is.

Reni wrote me a list that includes the child's daily schedule, when and what he eats, when he sleeps, what to wash his clothes with, what he shouldn't eat, when to take him for a walk, etc. This is a "basic" list so that the child's daily routine and lifestyle don't get turned upside down just because I decided to dive deep into childcare now.

Here's the list.

I will follow this list for 30 days. I'll go grocery shopping, taking the child with me. I'm canceling the babysitter; I'll be with him just like mothers are at home with their children. Of course, Reni will also be here, but I told Reni to plan her schedule for these 30 days so that she's home as little as possible during the day, to which she said it would be interesting for her too, to see how she experiences it.

I already experienced yesterday that I'll need Reni's help for at least the first few days, because yesterday I took care of the child perfectly, but after the child went to bed, I had the mental strength for everything except tidying up the apartment, because my child is the type who wakes up and messes up the apartment.

Like this.

So Reni put things away one last time and cooked the child's food yesterday evening for today. From yesterday noon until the child's bedtime, I was with Ádi, so this 30-day full-time dad program actually started yesterday.

If I can't hack it, I'll write that down too, but I don't think that's an option. It's not an option because mothers can't just say, "Sorry Géza, it's not working, so I'm checking out."

And regarding yesterday's post, more precisely one of its comments, which was quite popular. One mother asked me to take a selfie on the first day and one at the end, to show how worn out my face will be from these 30 days.

We'll see.