Fatherhood

It's not just mums who end in a funny mess with child care. We dads can have a tough job when mums are busy elsewhere.

To understand my situation today, try a simple mental exercise. Think about what it would feel like to prepare my daughter for school when my wife has been occupied with an early morning operation. Come to think about my domestic maid who has also left. Dads of the world - count me in please - can make neither decent lunch box nor ponytail for their daughters. I hadn’t worried about my ponytail skill - or lack thereof - said about me as a dad, but I just knew my daughter wished it was her mum doing her hair. Pretty challenging, right?

Wait a minute, I hear you say. Isn't it good to have taken a half day off to prepare for picking up your daughter in the afternoon? I did. Ah, it's a good plan that can go awry. I received a phone call from the school bus nanny in the morning, way before my scheduled leave in the afternoon, and was told that my daughter threw up on the way to school.

Watch out. The washing machine had leaking water all over the floor at home too. Not a joke. A host of exciting jobs for a dad.

Moments later I reminded myself a recent report from medical journal The Lancet Public Health: the first head-to-head comparison found that single fathers had three-times higher mortality than rates in single mothers and partnered fathers. I went to washroom to splash my face with cool water. I closed my eyes and counted to ten. When I opened them, I congratulated myself for not being a single dad. In an instant I felt better, much better than those poor single dads.