Meet Eduardo, Stay-at-home Dad

As we continue our series on #DadStories in celebration of Father’s Day, we meet Eduardo, a new dad living in Alameda, CA with his wife and 15-month-old son, Bodhi. He’s originally from Mexico but grew up in the Monterey Bay area, a son of field and cannery workers and one of ten children. After a decade of working as a caregiver, Eduardo is now a stay-at-home dad.

“you don’t need to watch tv, I find it all very entertaining."

Eduardo compares his career work with raising a child and says it’s “a different kind of hard, but very sweet because it’s a child.” For him, the level of responsibility is the same, along with the need to be gentle and caring, but he admits being a dad might be more enjoyable. His favorite part are all the funny moments and the silly things his son does throughout the day. He adds, “you don’t need to watch tv,” and finds it all very entertaining.

Growing up, Eduardo’s father wasn’t present the way Eduardo would like to be for his own son. His father was working hard to support a family of ten children. Eduardo is trying to be the father that his dad wasn’t able to be, giving his son the attention and understanding his father was unable to give him. As a stay-at-home dad, Eduardo acknowledges how lucky he is to get to spend so much time with his son. 

“trust in beautiful things, because the beauty in things can heal you.”

As a father, Eduardo sees his role as one of providing support, but without being too overbearing. He never had rules or structure growing up, possibly because he had so many siblings which made it difficult for his parents to manage in such a way, but he vows to give his son structure, like a day-to-day routine. He also sees sharing “a vision of the world” with his son as another important role of fatherhood. 

Eduardo’s fatherly advice to his young son is about trust; first, trust that things always have a way of working themselves out, and second, “trust in beautiful things, because the beauty in things can heal you.” Wilma, Eduardo’s wife, adds that her family is like a triangle, and that the three of them work to maintain balance to ensure that their triangle remains a strong one. 

In case you missed them, check out previous installments of our #DadStories here and here.