Conscious Breeders of the World Unite

I was at a picnic here on the east side of Austin yesterday and something struck me. I was surrounded by other young parents, all creative and entrepreneurial types who have all rejected the traditional ideas about becoming a parent. I saw not one t-shirt tucked into khaki shorts the whole time I was there. I felt like I was surrounded by the catalysts of a modern day Renaissance. I’ve written about this before: just because we’re parents now doesn’t mean we have to give up our creativity, or grow up for that matter.

We are redefining parenthood and our children are reaping the benefits. The new dad is much more involved than the traditional dad. I mean, how many of our dads stayed home with us for any length of time? Yesterday I was among other dads who have done just that or they have enough flexibility in their career that they can spend more time and focus more energy on their little ones than traditional dad would have thought possible.

So how do we keep this work-at-home-parent train rolling? One of the ways is finding support systems, finding other parents who are willing to take a less traditional approach to family and career. One of the reasons I started this blog was to reach out to other parents and hopefully contribute to this new way of doing things. We all believe this is the best way of doing things, but it’s not always the easiest. If I had gone on to get my MBA, I’m sure my career path would be much more straightforward, but it would also be more limiting. I like the way things are going right now but that doesn’t mean I don’t get discouraged or challenged. And having other parents we can surround ourselves with is so important for the survival of this Renaissance in career and family.

We breeders need to stick together and if we do, it’s just a matter of time before we outnumber all the haters out there.

In the comments: Where do you get the support you need to be a renaissance parent? Share your resources with us: groups, blogs or books.