Full Time

A full-time job is something you do 40 hours out of the week. There are 168 hours in a week, so a full-time job is less than a fourth of the week. A full-time job is something you get paid for. A full-time job is something you can lose if the economy gets bad. It is something you can retire from. It is something you can change at a mid-life crisis. It is something you get sick days, paid time off, and vacations from.

Parenting is not a full-time job.

No matter what else you do during the week, you are a parent all 168 hours of the week. There is no monetary compensation for parenting. No matter the economy you are always a parent. You never retire from parenting. And you can’t decide half-way through to change your mind. There are no sick days, no vacations, no leaving it at the office. And while I’ve never found a job I can literally do in my sleep, you are a parent even while dreaming.

If you have children, you are a parent. There’s no part-time or full-time about it. Brett is just as much a full-time parent as I am even though he spends 40 hours a week in an office. He takes his fatherhood to the office with him. Moms who work and moms who don’t are all full-time moms.

Parenting, being a mom or a dad, is not a job. It is not a career choice. It is life. And it’s worth it.