When a dad friend was made redundant and took on full-time childcare duties, I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him. Overnight the adrenaline rush of working in finance was replaced by the mundanity of sticking on a wash or finding the lost PE kit. The family usually had a nanny but to save money he stepped in – and thrust himself into the mum circle as a result. At the school gates, he would listen as we gossiped away and worried about the juggle – and at one play date, he even ended up mowing my lawn and cutting up a manky sofa with an axe so I could get it out of the door. (This wasn’t your average play date, of course. It was a full-on DIY moment.) But however efficient he was at childcare, and he was very efficient, he couldn’t help but look like a fish out of water.
I thought of this when Tom Holland last week revealed his plans to quit acting and become a stay-at-home dad when he and Zendaya, who are engaged, decide to have children. “When I have kids, you will not see me in movies anymore,” he told Men’s Health magazine. “[My life will be just] golf and dad – and I will just disappear off the face of the earth.” He’s not the only one. Wayne Rooney is also reportedly planning to take on the role of house husband to his four sons this year after leaving his manager post at Plymouth while his media personality wife Coleen concentrates on her career. Most excitingly of all, a new reality show House Husbands is on the cards. A recent casting callout gave some idea of who the producers are looking for, declaring: “Are you a proud husband holding down the home front while your powerhouse wife takes charge in the boardroom, on set, or in the operating room?”
