Welcome to Homo domesticus. A blog by a stay-at-home dad.

Homo domesticus is the scientific name for Man at Home. It’s a play on the name of our species Homo sapiens, which means wise man. In scientific literature it would be shortened to H. domesticus on subsequent references, so Hdomesticus it will be. Plus, that was the only website address and twitter handle that were both readily available!

I choose this name, because it represents what I do, and it pays homage to science. I believe in science. I’ve got a degree in zoology. And I like to think I’m playing some small part in reclaiming the word “Homo” back from the pejorative.

This name gives my blog scope to evolve. As I look at the landscape ahead of me I see hundreds of possible paths my keyboard and mind could take me.

Primarily, this will be a blog about my experiences as a stay-at-home dad, negotiating my way through a largely female world. But, at this point, I don’t feel the need to limit it to that. Maybe the odd discussion of something scientific will creep in here.

I working on a post about embryos and their fathers and mothers. It belongs in the broader zone of gender relations, but it is topical. At this point I should probably heed the advice of my journalism professor, the incomparable Tony Reid, former editor of the New Zealand Listener.

As a student I wrote a story about a pregnant woman starting a new business. I had a birth metaphor running through it. He sat me down, wrung has forearms out and explained to me that while this seemed like a fairly innocuous comparison, we were both men, so we couldn’t really understand why it was not going to work, but in his experience male journalists are better served not going anywhere near the female realm.

Truth is I have toyed with writing a blog before. In its earlier iteration it was more a glorified journal. I could never quite find a balance between the public and the private world. I don’t want to blog all my family secrets, which is a challenge when being a family man is your topic. So those posts remain private. If I find my feet and a free moment perhaps I’ll rework them into this new format.

Thanks to Emily Peck of the Huffington Post. She tracked me down for a story on being a stay-at-home dad. In the course of our conversation I dusted off my first post about the trouble I had listing my Occupation as a Stay-at-Home Dad. The Huff Post published it with the article. That was two weeks ago.

I didn’t know what to expect, but I have gone on since then. I’ve enjoyed my little creative spurt. Will it last? Will the soup hundreds of possible topics swirling in my head slowly simmer away? Will it coalesce into a sharper brew?

Does anyone actually care?

We will see how it all evolves.