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Pioneering Dad
By Jadzia Bogdanowicz
When Les and I got married, he told me he wanted to have a big family. I thought big was three to five children, but he was thinking more along the lines of 12!
When I got pregnant with our first daughter, Julia, Les and I were in graduate school finishing our MBAs. Les was so excited about becoming a dad that he adjusted his whole school schedule so that we could take all of our classes together. He joined me at every prenatal visit, every shopping spree at the baby store and every baby shower. He read my childbirth books and stayed with me throughout my labor, patiently awaiting Julia's arrival. When she was born, he cried tears of joy as he cut her umbilical cord.
Les quit his job to get out of the "rat race" that would keep him away from his newborn baby. He was with us during my entire four-month maternity leave, feeding Julia, diapering her, dressing her – he is just as good at caring for our baby as any woman.
More than anything else, he cherishes his time with Julia, refusing to return to a 9-to-5 job so that he could work from home and be with her during the day. When Julia's nanny broke her foot this spring, Les became Julia's full-time caregiver for six weeks. He sacrificed many of his other commitments to be with her day in and day out while I was working.
Now that the nanny is back, Les has resumed his other activities. His goal is to be self-sufficient so that he never has to be away from his baby for too long. As an electrical engineer and entrepreneur, he is working with researchers and doctors around the country to develop a biomedical device treating certain forms of blindness. His work is challenging and pioneering, but he always makes sure to keep it balanced with his "Julia time."
He has taken her to business meetings and to the lab where he will soon be conducting animal studies for his device. He never feels ashamed of being labeled a "manny" or a "stay-at-home dad" because he values fatherhood more than any other pursuit.
Les deserves to be iParenting's Dedicated Dad because he has rearranged his whole life and career to make his first child the center of his universe, and he is just as excited now as he was before to keep adding kids to our happy trio. Although I'm not sure we will have a dozen kids, I know that each child we do bring into this world will always have a strong, intelligent and dedicated father to serve as their anchor every day.