on parenthood

So here I am in Switzerland. I got a 14 month daughter, she is a lot of work, (need link here to flikr album "Sofia and support crew"). My wife got the gig for us to be here, and now the time is now that she has to produce. She is in the thick of it. That means that I am doing childcare from morn til about 9 or 10pm lately. We have a wonderful 12 hours, three 4 hour afternoons per week of glorious Swiss daycare, praise be. Please note that 12 hours is woefully short of a standard 40 hour workweek and a far cry from the normal obsessed 52 hour week of which I subscribe to when actually working-- well maybe.

So my good buddy, Eric http://www.stamen.com sets up this blog "cause I have so much time to ramble" so ramble I shall. Starting with an excerpt of an email, that I shall promptly forward to his wife (Nikki):

*dear eric* "The funny thing, to me, is that you think that stay at home dad means I actually have time to ramble. It is full time work, and to be honest, interesting but not particularly stimulating intellectually. The moments that I have to actually put something in writing are limited. But I will try. It is after midnight and she just got to bed.

Time.

Here is the cold hard truth here buddy. It is great having a kid, but the first couple of years are a total mind fuck time suck.

When you have munchkins, which you must, because they are soooooooo cute and will eventually be much smarter and stronger than you, one of you will have to drop out of normal life and take care of the sucker(s). If it is Nikki, probably, then YOU should help with the load. Now that I am full time care giver, I see that women have had a bum deal for a long, long time. The work never stops. -- of course I am doing it with style, waking at 10am, smoking, shopping and cooking fine meals cause I seem to be landing these commissions to spin rocks--go figure-- smoking more, and taking the kid to kinderkrippe. -- but it IS relentless and yet somehow relentlessly inane.

Doing it in Switzerland is fun. At least the sheer "otherness" keeps the monotony at bay. I would be out of my mind with boredom if I understood the language.

If we have another kid, I really hope I have the cash for two au-pairs.