At the beginning of each school year, my two boys hand me the always-fun-to-fill out "school  health and emergency form". I always scribble in at-home dad as my occupation.

Yesterday's The Scotsman (UK) noted that Alan Whyte of Scotland did the same thing when he got his birth certificate for his son Logan, by writing in "house husband".

They told me I had to put in a paid profession, but I was determined my son would know that this was my job and eventually I persuaded them," he says proudly. "I think I was the first bloke in central Scotland to be recorded as a house husband.

The article is the standard story we see here in the states, with "problems" of isolation, how this is a "growing trend" and of course a sample negative reaction from one dad who needed some public vomit help.

Struggling to mop up vomit from his child, himself and the surrounding walls, he called out to passing neighbours for help, only to hear them soothe: "There, there, it's all right, mummy will be home soon."

The story also  notes a "new" (released May 07, possibly reflecting 2005)  stat of 20,000 at-home dads in Scotland, up from 10,000 two years earlier (2003?) and 5,000 1996. The research is said to be from homedad.org.uk/ a UK support group. That site showed the numbers are actually from from Office of National Statistics which reported 200,000 UK dads at home..

Nearly lost in the article is Edmund Farrow's  fabulously retro DadsDinner daddy web site complete with a Housdad's Handbook. His site has the best tag line ever: Leaving a man in charge of children doesn't always mean a dogs breakfast.

I added Ed's creation to my blogroll and took off  Jay's Allen's "The Zero Boss site" who shut his blog down this summer with no explanation.  Jay had abandoned his blog once before due to personal problems. Rumor has it he trekked out west to breath some of that fresh non-blogger air.  If you were a Zero Boss fan don't rule out his return to virtual reality again.