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From Wall Street to Sesame Street
The Rewards of Being a Daycare Daddy
By Mark Stackpole
It is hard to imagine any parent more involved than David Foreman, a public relations and marketing director from Crozet, Va. The father of two young children, Foreman's first child was born while his wife was in her fourth year of medical school. Knowing that her schedule as a medical student, and later as a physician, would be very demanding, they worked together to determine how to best schedule their busy lives as parents. Classes, training and nights on call, as well as her eventual residency and fellowship, put Foreman in the position of being the primary caregiver.
"I knew going in what was in store for me," Foreman says. "Supporting her as she moves down her career path was something I decided to do before we were married." His active role in raising his children became even busier when the time came for them to attend daycare.
Foreman did extensive research on which daycare provider seemed best for his kids, and before long, he found himself making the daily wake-up calls for his children, making lunches, dropping them off and picking them up. As a recent move from Florida to Virginia had left him temporarily unemployed, he found himself picking strawberries and visiting libraries as a chaperone on field trips. He even drove other children whose parents could not get time off work.
Though active dads like Foreman may seem like the exception rather than the rule, this is not necessarily the case. "I am pleased to see that many fathers are involved in their children's daycare, whether it is dropping off or picking up their kids," says Foreman. "It's nice to be recognized as 'Kendall's Dad' or 'Jack's Dad' most of the time, but over the course of a year, I've gotten to know most of the parents as we spend those 10 to 15 minutes together twice a day."