What do I wish I had known before I became a stay-at-home dad? One thing I wish I had known was that I wasn't going to get a job for another eight years, because I might have been able to plan things out a little better for myself; psychologically, as to how I was going to deal with this shift in identity, from being a pretty revered professional to being a stay-at-home parent. It's the most noble, wonderful thing you can do, ultimately, but not everybody is going to feel that way. You're going to have to deal with external forces that are going to be judging you on so many different levels. If you could look into the future and say, "I'm going to be a stay-at-home dad for this amount of time," or "I'm going to stay at home forever;" then you could map that out psychologically a little better.