Stay At Home Dad – Am I Becoming More Like A Woman?

I read a recent study about how men who stay at home and look after their kids have increased levels of the female hormone estrogen in their body.

In other words the time they spend as a full time stay at home dad has measurable hormonal consequences.

It caused me to wonder…am I becoming more like a woman?

In addition my wife has introduced me to the health and environmental benefits of soy milk without telling me about the other studies that say that men who drink soy milk also have raised estrogen levels. Now I really am starting to worry.

It’s not as if my hormonal balance was tipped massively in favour of testosterone to begin with anyway. My wife and I have always joked that my “metrosexualism” and domestic tendencies may cause people to wonder about my sexual preferences. No one can iron a shirt or fluff a cushion like I can.

My saving grace is that I am married with a child so that should manage to hold off the doubters for a little while longer. Not that there is anything wrong with that.

Now that I am a full time stay at home dad who drinks soy milk I now have the double estrogen whammy. Holy crap! No wonder I found the women’s conversations at a party last weekend much more interesting than the men’s.

On top of that I now need to carry a small “man bag” to hold all the extra baby stuff and I have swapped the car and sport magazines for Modern Recipes, Practical Parenting and Home Beautiful. I really am in trouble.

Lately I have found myself drawn to the conversations of women and I let myself believe it was because they were discussing topics relevant to my experiences as a stay at home dad i.e. parenting, washing, cooking and cleaning. Could it also be due to my raised levels of estrogen?

As crazy as it might sound I find a conversation about how to get your kid to eat, sleep or poo or how to get a stain of a shirt much more interesting and useful than what horse won race five last Saturday or how many beers I can drink.

Admittedly I have never really been into drinking or gambling but now that I am a stay at home dad I seem to have much more in common with the other mums than I do with the dads and subsequently I find myself naturally drawn to them and their conversations.

While I am committed to my stay home dad role and my low cholesterol soy milk  I must continually remind myself to be on the look out for any additional female qualities that may creep in to my persona and cause me to become, well – more like a woman. I am a house husband after all.

Anyone for a soy latte and a catch up..?