How I became a stay at home dad...

There are many different ways of becoming a stay at home dad. I have experienced one. The day my wife discovered that she was pregnant, she was earning more at office her job than I was as a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service. Even though I had reached the top  letter carrier pay-grade, my annual earnings were close to what it would have cost for 9-5 daycare.

Prior to discovering that I was going to be a father,  I had been gradually growing tired of delivering the mail. My work friends were awesome, but after ten years of slogging it out in the rain, sleet, snow and hail, and working in an antagonistic  "us-versus-them" (labor/mangement) atmosphere, I was burned out.

As an aspiring professional visual artist, I had a lot to potentially lose by leaving this job:

• It paid a decent union wage
• It had cost of living adjustments and opportunities for overtime
• You could, for the most part, leave your job at work at the end of the day. 

Yet, I still wanted out;  I felt that if I stayed on for much longer, I would never be able to leave, as my professional skill set was not developing. So,  my son's arrival , my wife's understanding and generosity and our economic situation ushered me into a new career that I was qualified for simply by being loving, trustworthy and available...