Parenting Tip: Take your job seriously

No one will ever be more concerned about your job than you are. Success largely depends on your own perspective and desire to work each day to the fullest. When it comes to be a stay at home dad, or parent, the fundamentals of being a hard worker are the same as in any other position. Parents differ in the lack of income for their time investment. Benefits are long term, and product will be displayed in the years to come as the children grow into adults.

Many times in the Bible we are instructed to be good workers, and to serve as to the Lord and not man. He is not the man upstairs, or the boss, He is far more than we really think. He is the King of the Universe, and as King He has adopted us into the Kingdom to be servants and followers of Him. We are called to serve in whatever job arena He has called us, and serve faithfully.

There have been many jobs I have worked at in the last ten years since I entered the work force. Each of them has tested my skills and abilities, but also my personal faithfulness and integrity to the job. So when someone who is called to a high calling of following the King, working becomes a service to God.

Being a stay at home dad is a full time job with the added benefit of being able to invest personally in the lives of my own kids. When they fall, I pick them up. When they cry, I dry their tears. When they need discipline, I am there. It matters not who the parent is who stays at home with the kids, it matters that they are doing the job. The house may not always be as clean, the food may not always come out of the oven smelling as good, but it’s the longer running investment in the lives of the children that counts most.  

I feel like sometimes I have to stress this point every day to myself. With the cost of childcare going up it seems like the obvious choice to stay at home with the kids. But even more so you have to be ready to deal with society constantly telling you what you should be doing differently. There aren’t as many friends and family coming around as you thought there would be. Avoiding depression and stress becomes priorities. So I find the best method to being a productive stay at home parent, is to remember my job at home is just as important if not more valuable for the little ones than anything else I could be doing. But I have to take it seriously, they deserve nothing less.