Our story starts today with Central Coast dad Brad Kearns happily at work.
We know Brad is happy because he tells us as much. For Brad, work is 40-plus “hours per week under the socially acceptable provisor ‘supporting the family’.”
That’s fine. For many parents, that’s exactly what work is. (Hands up, ladies. Hands up.)
Brad thinks that his wife Sarah is pretty good at what she does. They have two boys, two-year-old Knox and six-week-old Finn. (Great names, for boys, in my humble opinion. Nice work Brad and Sarah.) Brad says that while he’s at work, “Mum continues doing what women seem to so effortlessly do.”
Small bone to pick here; men can parent their children pretty well too, Brad, and saying things like that entrenches gender stereotypes. But that’s a whole other post for a whole other day and Brad seems like a pretty cool dude who is doing his best to get on with things.
So, Brad is happy at work when he gets a text message from Sarah: “My liver has failed”.
Brad writes, “And that’s when I became the mum. It’s now been 24 hours… I feel like the Law & Order scene change beat would be appropriate about now.”
Brad describes the next 24 hours pretty hilariously. Knox gets two-minute noodles for dinner (which is a perfectly acceptable dinner in my book… probably what I myself will have for dinner tonight). Finn wakes up for a feed three, no four times that night and by 5:30am, the three boys are wide awake on the couch in the living room.
Fast forward a couple of hours and another disaster or two, there was a knock at the door. It was Brad’s mother-in-law.
“It was in that moment I knew I was defeated. It was also in that moment I knew she knew I knew I was defeated. A vulnerability we try our best to keep from our in-laws. That was only 16 hours of being a mum. And I failed.”
Sarah is still in hospital, and we wish her a full and speedy recovery.
Brad is still being a solo parent for a spell. Brad, we wish you all the best, and we want to tell you what we like to tell mums all the time.
You. Got. This.
You can follow more of Brad Kearns’ adventures on Facebook.
Top Comments
Good on him and all, but did I seriously just read an article about a dad being a dad?
Most decent men (even the breadwinners) do this regularly. And without MIL stepping in to "save" them. It's not news.
After my son was born I had bowel obstructions. I would be in agony throwing up bile not being able to eat. I looked after the three kids but it was hard going. Liquid diets exhaustion etc finally I went to the hospital. My husband was asked to bring me something from home in pain and scared and miserable I was really upset when he turned up and say with his phone game I asked if he had picked up whatever it was and he replied I've spent the evening looking for a sitter for your children. The your part made me want to murder him instead I asked the nurse to make him go. I don't think he ever understood the hell I had gone through looking after our children even when I was sick as hell just so he didn't miss a second of work. Thankfully things have changed but the your still bugs the heck out of me.