Sep 23 2007
About The Lazy HouseHusband
Lazy House Husband … Me??? Hang on a second … I prefer to call myself a “domestic efficiency expert”. After all, I have spent many years working out ways to get other people (like my wife and kids) to do the hard work, so I can profit from their efforts and live in the manner I am accustomed and entitled to. I believe some people call this leverage.
Anyway, just so you know, I’m married to Corporate Babe and together we have three wonderful, smart little boys: “Filosofo” (our first born, who has already solved most of the mysteries of our Universe), “Exacto” (the middle child, who is either going to grow up to be a policeman or a lawyer) and your youngest one, “Destructo” (also known as “The Little Angel From Hell”)!
Last year, Corporate Babe decided she should go back to work and that I should stay at home and look after the children. After putting up a little feeble resistance to the idea (Me to CB aloud: “Are you sure you really want to do this?” Me to myself silently:”Thank God I don’t have to go back out there!”), I put away my manly pride (after folding it up neatly, so it wouldn’t crease) and simply acquiesced to the one I love.
The household got a new breadwinner (Hail Corporate Babe!) and I was free to start building an online business from home while bonding with my kids and living life as a hermit, which suits me just fine!
Thanks to my great business ideas 10 years earlier and my persistent ability to paint a compelling vision of a happy, healthy and wealthy future, I convinced my wife to quit working for Fortune500 companies while I grew a huge, global, direct sales distribution team. My wife gently reminded me that we were now almost a quarter of a million dollars in debt and facing bankruptcy thanks to my business ideas, and so I was forced to listen and agree with everything she said.
As I was not going to wear the pants around the house again for a while, I took them off and gave them to her. After dropping them in the dirty laundry basket, Corporate Babe then announced she was going to start looking for an IT job in Opportunity City, the place we had left two years earlier, when I accepted a business consulting role in the same little interstate town where my brother and his family lives. Coincidentally, not only did we move to the same town where my brother lives, I also went to work for him and his wife in their electrical services and retail lighting business so we could service our debts.
Now that we have moved back to Opportunity City and Corporate Babe has started working in her new role working as a Channel Sales Manager for ThankGodWare Corp and the kids have started school, I am ready to begin my new phase in life as a Lazy House Husband.
I am sure that, like me, many men around the world are now quitting the rat race and watching their wives and partners go back to work to support their decision. Therefore, I decided to create www.LazyHouseHusband.com as a virtual meeting place where stay-at-home hubbies can grumble and mumble about home responsibilities, and share their experiences, ideas and insights into ways of keeping a happy home and family while expending minimal effort and energy as a house husband.
In this blog, I plan to share great secrets, tips, information and resources with other stay-at-home dads and husbands on things like:
- How to keep the romance alive and drive your wife or partner wild as you develop into a pear-shaped, balding and unshaved house-hubby.
- The best times to go around the house making to-do lists (so you can come across confidently when your wife asks you why the laundry is still sitting in piles in the living room floor).
- Why a woman’s work is never done and a house-husband’s work never gets done.
- How to get the kids to make their own breakfast, so you can get an extra half hour of sleep in the morning before rushing them off to school.
- How to perfect the “casual” house husband look when your friends, neighbors and family members drop in for an unexpected visit.
- What to say to mums at children’s birthday parties and school functions, when you’re the only dad attending.
- Quick, easy and nutritious meals you can buy for the whole family.
- How to get to the point of exhaustion, freak out, snap, bark and throw tantrums and still be adored as the family clown and resident goofball.
- How to deal with hawkers, door-to-door salespeople, eternal salvation pushers and bill collectors.
- Get rich, money-making ideas that I’m experimenting with.
- How to self-actualize at home and be the envy of your friends.
- How to avoid becoming a desperate househusband.
I was going to end this blog introduction by asking you to bookmark this site and promising you that I will report every day on my progress as a model househusband, but I couldn’t be bothered to make and try to keep such a commitment. I have enough demands on my time already, so, if you want to keep up with the hectic goings on of a house hubby who just wants to raise a happy and healthy family without going insane and get rich without leaving the house, then why not subscribe to my blog notification list. This way, every time I make a new post here at www.LazyHouseHusband.com, you’ll know about it and can come visit the site for more househusband bonding, sharing and inspiration.
The Lazy House Husband
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[…] on the back verandah. That way, instead of spending the day indoors working on my computer while Destructo, our three year-old, rips my home office apart ("you just keep working Daddy … I'm […]
[…] put on the back porch. That way, instead of spending the day indoors working on my computer while Destructo, our three year-old, rips my bedroom office apart (”you just keep working Daddy … […]
[…] believe, therefore, that I manifested the Internet and created the prototype for the work-from home business environment. Come to think about it, I am probably also responsible for creating Microsoft's "Where […]
[…] put on the back porch. That way, instead of spending the day working indoors on my computer while Destructo, our youngest son, tears my bedroom office apart (”you just keep working Daddy … […]
Please get in touch - we’d love you to write a piece
Hi,
I was fascinated to read your blog which I picked up from the article in the Daily Telegraph.
I too, am a househusband - and mum too - as my nine year old boy’s mother became ill with one of those dramatic and severe illnesses that either wrecks your entire life and the lives of everyone around you or just kills you anyway; which amounts to much the same thing really.
So, there we are, just the two of us. But at least you have the benefit of Corporate Babe’s payday ! I don’t. That means not only do I have to look after the Ninja Dynamo Wrecker, but try and earn a living as well as being both Mum and Dad.
Therein lies a giant conflict of interest. I haven’t yet managed to solve it. All I have succeeded in doing is head towards a nervous breakdown as I find it takes all my time dealing with the ninja wrecker and there is absolutely no time at all for anything else - and I mean anything. I long ago abandoned any pretence of cleaning the house, for instance.
But, the reason for contacting you. I was thinking of organising a blog to attempt to get work as a freelance journalist, but have utterly failed to understand the concept. By that I mean, of course I understand what a blog is etc, but I do not understand how people, particularly relevant people, get to read it. And how did the Daily Telegraph get to have an article. Did they contact you because they just happened to see the blog. Or are you in some way connected to them, or did you just pitch them ? By the same token did Georgina contact you because she saw the article in the Telegraph or just the blog.
Now for the sixty four thousand dollar question. To help me understand why people blog, can you tell me why you are spending so much time and effort doing it (well, I might add) ?
I notice you have few comments to your posts, but you have had a spectacular success in terms of getting an article in the Telegraph. I presume you were paid reasonably well for it too. If you tell me pay was nominal or absent, I will l give up any attempt at journalism immediately as it would indicate the media are becoming so parsimonious about paying people to write for them it is just not worth bothering trying to earn a living through them any more.
It seems to me that blogging is utterly pointless and I only want to do it for entirely commercial reasons, whereas most blogs I have seen seem to be nothing more than rather bizarre ego trips. A bit like what the average two year old would produce if only they could write and use a computer.
I look forward to hearing from you
Nick
Hi Nick,
Thank you for taking the time to post a comment on my blog.
I’m sorry to hear about your circumstances. It must be awfully hard to be doing it all on your own.
The Lazy Househusband blog is mostly an outlet for self-expression. It’s my one sanctuary where I can write using my own voice. I draw my inspiration from the real-life events of my own family and I’m guessing that’s where the appeal comes from.
The request to write an article for The Telegraph came totally out of the blue. They did pay me for the article, so I certainly don’t wish to discourage you from seeking a living as a freelance writer. However, here are some things you should keep in mind:
1) In my experience, starting a blog or web site to make money online is not a “quick-fix” solution to financial problems. Building a “long-term” profitable presence online requires careful planning, organization, and — if you are not financially in a position to outsource the work to others — going through a steep and often expensive learning curve.
2) Although the opportunity to write an article for The Telegraph was unsolicited and unexpected, I have spent many years developing skills in areas like copywriting, web and graphic design, online marketing, business systems development, search engine optimization, etc. So, I felt confident to accept the challenge when it was presented to me - even though it was past midnight when I got the call from The Telegraph giving me only a few hours to get the article written before it went to press (and with my family still recuperating from the whooping cough!).
3) I don’t have the necessary experience to advise you on making money online as a freelance blog writer. My best recommendation to you, therefore, is formulate a plan for where you want to be, then start from where you are, work with what you’ve got and never lose sight of your goals. That’s what keeps me going.
Nick, I hope the above helps and that you will soon find a way to turn your situation around.
I wish you the very best of success.
The Lazy HouseHusband
Hi
Thanks for the reply. I find it slightly cheering that your commission came out of the blue. Was it Liz Hunt (features editor) who commissioned you ? And isn’t it just typical that a non time critical story is made into a deadline drama by the journal wanting the copy with a deadline just a few hours away.
I’m still trying to grasp the concept of blogging though. I am not entirely dumb, but many hours of hunting around for information and reading it hasn’t enlightened me much. I am unconcerned about writing skills, but need to find out exactly how to persuade people to read the blog - particularly people like the Daily Telegraph.
My complaint is that getting any information from any part of the web is usually difficult because it is highly diffused and ‘woolly’. This appears to be driven by everyone’s desperate need for commercial advantage in one way or another. So for every microcosm of useful information, you have to sift it out of lorry loads of nonsense and diversions from one irrelevant website to another; never discovering whether a webpage is useful or not until considerable time has been wasted on it.
Nick
[…] to put on the back porch. That way, instead of spending the day indoors working on my laptop while Destructo, our youngest son, tears my bedroom office apart (”you just keep working Daddy … […]
[…] believe, therefore, that I manifested the Internet and created the prototype for the home-based business environment. Come to think about it, I am probably also responsible for creating Microsoft’s “Where […]
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Your blog is awesome - humorous and very insightful. The “uxorious” post was especially wicked. Keep up the good work.