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The fall 2010 issue of Brain, Child includes, "Don't Try This at Home," one of the stories from Bad Daddies.  Brain, Child is a great magazine I'd only been vaguely aware of in past years.  The articles remind me of the conversations you have with your smarter parent friends.  It couldn't be further in tone from the treacly parenting magazines in the grocery store.  I'm thrilled to have my story between its covers.

"Don't Try This at Home," was the stay-at-home dad story I knew needed to be part of a collection about modern fathers.  Having written for The Washington Post  about being home with my kids, I approached a fictional treatment of the same subject with some wariness.  But the story I ended up with wasn't what I expected, and that's always a good sign. 

Read the opening here.  And then run out and buy the magazine (Some Barnes and Nobles carry it).
 


Comments

Ted Corcoran
10/08/2010 8:31am

Way to go, Mark! Respect... -Ted

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Vincent O'Keefe link
10/12/2010 1:08am

I enjoyed your story in Brain, Child. Your Washington Post piece ("Odd Man Out") also intrigued me. As a veteran stay-at-home father, I could relate to your points about the murky "exit strategies" and "endgame" of stay-at-home parents. I am a college professor-turned-writer, but I'm still "at home" as well.

Vincent O'Keefe

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Mark
10/12/2010 10:09pm

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.

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Vincent O'Keefe link
10/13/2010 12:25am

Glad you liked the Brady Bunch piece. And congrats on your return to work. Best of luck to you.

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jim
10/17/2010 9:23am

Good set up, Mark, and several comic but edgy bits.

My favorite line: He skipped theirs.

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Liz Sheffield link
12/03/2010 12:27pm

What a wonderful piece of fiction in Brain, Child. I am the wife of a SAHD and you captured so much of what my husband share's with me about his experience. The ending made me cry. Yay for the Russian Grandma/Nanny! So much of what my husband experiences is this lack of community for a SAHD with the moms at the playground, for whatever reason. Even though it was fiction, the end gave me some hope that we're on our way to being parents, not moms vs. dads. Well done. (And, kudos on getting into Brain, Child!)

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Mark
12/03/2010 3:17pm

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.

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Karly
01/04/2011 9:41am

Just read "Don't Try This at Home" and I have to say thanks, because you nailed it. It took a fiction story from a male perspective to capture my days. The SAHD/SAHM title makes people's eyes glaze over--mine included. I cringe when anyone is reduced to that title. I think men are more likely to get a pass. People assume that it's a temporary arrangement, while people assume with women that it's our lifelong dream, the crowning jewel of our achievements. Someone once asked me what I do. I replied, "Well, I'm a writer, a farmer, an artist, co-owner of a doctor's office..." and their reply was,"Oh! Isn't staying home with your kids MAGICAL?!" Hahahaha-- no. I love my kids beyond all reason, but "magical?" Hahahaha....

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Mark link
01/05/2011 10:56am

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.

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