Ever use Post-Its around home or in the office? Sure you do, but I guarantee you'll never look at one the same way after you read some of the classic notes Chris Illuminati left for "permanent roommate" (his wife), when he became a stay-at-home dad in 2010.
To be fair, Illuminati is a writer and comic by trade, so when his witticisms turned to parenting, the result was bound to be hysterical.
And a cracking daddy blog, Message With a Bottle, was born.
Illuminati covers the usual daddy topics—from diaper disasters and housework—but in his own smart-aleck spin.
The notes started after his wife left him at home alone with his baby son for the first time, with a "lengthy list of instructions."
“I started writing down wise ass things like, ‘Feed baby. Change baby. Don't feed baby to cat.’ and hung it up on my bulletin board. I noticed it a few days later and laughed. I thought it would make a funny blog, dumb notes about my failures and observations as a father,” said Illuminati in an article on Today.
Of course, behind the funny lies the disgruntling truth: that we don't expect our men to be able to cope with raising children without that detailed list of instructions.
"People assume a man will be awful at it," says Illuminati, now at home with his second child, a daughter. "Or they assume he's out of work. Both were true for me at one point but I don't understand why people think men will be so bad. Are our parenting skills only good on weekends? ‘Well, I can control you on Sundays, but today is Tuesday, and I'm powerless!’"
So, so true. I still find myself issuing those commands (and my son is five!). I think he does for parenting what The Far Side did for pets. Would make a great daily desk calendar.
Care to share your favourite Illuminati-ism? Another stay-at-home dad whose creativity recently wowed us.
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