Vincent,

Thanks for the kind words. Good to see we've both had our say about parenting in the pages of the Post. I really liked your Brady Bunch piece. For various reasons I just today started back to a full-time job. A difficult transition, and of course I feel like it's all the back-to-work moms who have the best advice on weathering it.

Hi Liz,

A sincere thanks for taking the time to comment about the story. While it is fiction, some stories are less fictional than others. I did a five year stint staying home with my kids, for which I'm grateful. Unlike Braintree, my freelance income diminished and the kids were of an age (I hope) at which they could better deal with both parents working, so I write you from an office cubicle. While I hope you're right about the direction in which parenting is headed, my return to full-time work has done more to confirm my fears of how stay-at-home parents are viewed than it has to dispel them. Most of the Washington Post articles in the Nonfiction section of this site touch on full-time father stuff. Your husband might find them of interest. Tell him to keep fighting the good fight. And thanks again for checking in.

Hi Karly,

Thanks for taking the time to respond to the story. "Magical," huh? That doesn't entirely cover the experience, does it. I think that point of view comes from either A) spouses who work and choose to believe they are giving their non-working spouse the better gig or B) those nonworking spouses who fear that a more critical assessment of their time with the kids would open a Pandora's box of misery.

For me it's very gratifying that a story whose point of view was pretty unapologetically male has had some value for moms in the same position. It's taught me something valuable.