Trials and triumphs of being breadwinner mom and at home dad

“Being the main income earner feels
natural to me. I'm a very
independent person. I always knew
that I was going to have a job and
make my own money, regardless of
whether I got married. I never had
these expectations that a man would
take care of me.”
Gianina, Project Manager in the music industry and
Breadwinner Mom, in Sherman Oaks, California
© All Rights Reserved
BigFlipDocumentary.com

“I've seen other moms who pick their
kids up from ballet. Or picking their kids
up from soccer practice after school.
And realized, wow, that is just not in the
cards for me. I'm not going to be that
mom. I'm not in a position to have that
freedom to decide. There are things that
I'm going to miss out on with the boys.”
Gianina, Project Manager in the music industry and Breadwinner Mom, in Sherman Oaks, California

“I've always tried to be very mindful of not making him feel
less because he doesn't bring in as much ﬁnancially.”
Gianina, Project Manager in the music industry and Breadwinner Mom, in Sherman Oaks, California

“I have no problem with men in general taking care of
children. My son, being his mother, I want him to be all
that he can be. I would like to see him have all the time
he wants and needs to achieve whatever he wants.”
Nancy, Mother of At-Home Dad Chris, in Sherman Oaks, California

“Growing up I had all these male role models
that were kind of mooching off of women.
I would see men living off of working women.
I didn't want to be that way.”
Chris, Editor and At-Home Dad in Sherman Oaks, California

“I do look forward to a time when I can return to the workforce. Help out with all
the bills. We need money for college. For the savings fund that we are not doing
anything about right now. And my self respect is tied up in that.”

“Staying at home, doing all the laundry, cooking, taking the
kids to the park and the playroom and sweeping up the
ﬂoor and doing all the dishes, staying up till 2 in the
morning a lot of the time—that's a job. I don't care if people
think that I'm not doing my part. Because that is a job.”

“The first time I got [my baby
girl] Sam to drink out of a bottle,
Robyn had to go to work and I
had to get her fed. But Sam
wouldn't do a bottle. And I sat
there for an hour and a half. And
when she finally latched on and
started doing it, I probably cried
for about five minutes.”
Fred, Champion Snowboarder and At-Home Dad in Seattle

“In the moment it can be really
stressful. You miss what you
used to do. You want to have
adult conversation. But as time
goes by, you look back on it, and
that's when you get the rad
sensation, like, ‘Wow!’ Living in
the future— that's the payoff. It's
kind of tough while it's
happening. Just suck it up.
It's going to pay off in the
long run.”
Fred, Champion Snowboarder and
At-Home Dad in Seattle

“It’s tough to ﬁnd personal time.
I feel like I'm away from the kids
all day, so I want to be with them.
I feel guilty if I take extra time
away to hang out with girlfriends
or myself.”
Robyn, Software Brand Expert and
Breadwinner Mom in Seattle

“I really appreciate the fact that when I go off to
work, I don't have to rush them off to daycare.
Especially when they were babies, the idea of
waking them up just to take them to daycare, you
know... Now they can just be with Fred.”
Robyn, Software Brand Expert and
Breadwinner Mom in Seattle

“I really struggled when I was
on maternity leave and it was
time to go back to work. I
liked my job, but I loved being
with my babies. But I didn't
have a choice. Anyway,
there's only so much time
where it makes sense to sit
around and be sad about that.
You just have to get back on
the horse and ride it.”
Robyn, Software Brand Expert and Breadwinner Mom in Seattle

“There were going to be things that Fred
and I would have to work through that
were really paths that none of my friends
had ever ventured down, and we would
just have to learn as we go.”
Robyn, Software Brand Expert and Breadwinner Mom in Seattle

“We made that decision that I would
pull myself out of doing shows and
running this theater company. If we
try to hire a babysitter, we're going to
go broke for me to do shows where I'm
barely making any money. Plus we
really didn't want to entrust the ﬁrst
years of our son's life to someone that
we didn't know.”
Ross, Actor and At-Home Dad in Los Angeles

“I never thought about it as being
the breadwinner. I like what I do.
I am really type A and impatient.
It would be really, really hard for
me to stay at home. Ross is
inﬁnitely more patient.”
Julee, director at a children’s museum and
Breadwinner Mom in Los Angeles

“Well, I've never had a huge problem
with the idea of being in the mom
circle. I've got a lot of female friends.
And I was raised by a single mom.”
Ross, Actor and At-Home Dad in Los Angeles

“We love Los Angeles. This is a much bigger, more diverse city than the one
that we were in. And from the one that we both grew up in. We wanted
our son Ryder to have more opportunities to meet people of different races,
different colors, different languages.”
Julee, director at a children’s museum and Breadwinner Mom, and Ross, Actor and At-Home Dad, in Los Angeles

“We want to model to [our son]
Ryder that life is about choices.
That you choose what you think
is going to be most rewarding. We
needed to show him that we were
willing to—even if it meant risk—
make decisions that were going to
make us happiest, and not necessarily
the ones that were just easiest.”
Julee, Breadwinner Mom, and Ross, At-Home Dad, in L.A.

Visit us at
to sign up for our mailing list and
find out more about our documentary

Trials and triumphs of being breadwinner mom and at home dad

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (8)

Featured

Featured (20)

Trials and triumphs of being breadwinner mom and at home dad