nice to meet you
a biography of me
Hello,
A wee bit more about me. I’m Alasdair, I’m married, I’ve got two kids, a dog, and a house on the verge of collapse. I also stay home and look after the kids and the blog’s supposed to be all about that … I like a bit of a natter though and used to be a terrible blether when I had a ‘real’ job so you can probably expect a bit of everything ;)
1977 - 1999
Born, educated (primary), educated (secondary), educated (higher), graduated with ba hons business management (with HRM).
2000
Bought first house with the mrs in a suburb of Glasgow, having spent the previous five years in draughty student flats it was seemed to be all we had ever hoped for … we were misguided.
2001 - 2006
Relations with our neighbours on one side deteriorate as it becomes clear that they are obnoxious, arrogant, loud-mouthed, alcoholic slumjumpers … as the neighbours on the other side are their best pals, relations on that side become distinctly frosty.
July 2003
The Lad is born, being disappointed with the state of the planet he decides to attempt ot hang himself with the umbilical cord. Much to his annoyance a couple of the medical team dissuade him from this and he is quickly and discreetly resucitated … his mum seems to be blissfully unaware and it doesn’t seem like a good moment to mention it to her.
October 2005
I quit my job as an HR Officer/Manager which instantly cuts our household income in two, eek! I’ve done this to look after the lad, and we want more so one of us is going to have to quit work to make it happen.
All goes well for a while and the lad seems to be enjoying having me around, indeed, I am enjoying being around.
At around this time our neighbours start getting louder and louder and louder, politely asking them to turn it down a bit seems to fall on deaf ears, and we begin to draw in on ourselves. The neighbours become more obnoxious and our evenings are disturbed more and more …
Christmas 2005
Neighbourly relations crash, Christmas night is on the verge of becoming a boxing match and ends in a screaming match. See what the mrs says about it.
January - June 2006
A massive effort goes in to decorating our house for sale and my very pregnant mrs can often be seen with paint brush in hand to my consternation … she really shouldn’t be doing this.
During this period our neighbour, presumably seeing that our house is on the market, decides to make a land grab and subsume the access path at the back of our houses into his own property. We are forced into confrontation and again it comes close to blows, but I am encouraged to stand up to him and highlight to him his school boy bullying tactics to him … he’s not impressed, but then neither are we. We have consultations with our solicitor. Our solicitor becomes very angry and scary on our behalf (he’s also involved in the sale of our house and the purchase of our next house), we have to put him on a short leash but his attitude does embolden us and make us feel a bit more in the right. In that we aren’t being unreasonable with our neighbours, they are.
May 2006
The Lass decides to arrive during the rush hour and our attempt to get to the hospital is aborted after sitting in traffic for 10 minutes and the mrs screams blue murder. A hasty u-turn is undertaken and an ambulance called. 5 minutes later the Lass makes a messy entry in the front seat of our Ford Fiesta where she is caught by both the mrs and I before she lands in the footwell!
July - September 2006
We move out of our house and into my mothers as the purchase of the new place hasn’t been completed yet, although our sale has. Joy!
September 2006 - Present
We move to our rural idyll and it’s cold, really cold! It’s draughty, and it needs a lot of work doing … I’m still a stay at home dad and the mrs still works.
Everything else is in my blog and the mrs … two sides of the same coin you might say.
Responses
By: Charles Arcario on 26 June, 2007
at 3:09 am
nice to have been met! Glad you could drop by …
… I hope you don’t mind but I’ve commended your blog to the chaps at homedad.org.uk as a useful resource for homedads everywhere, I thought they might add it to this section - http://homedad.org.uk/information.html
By: Alasdair on 26 June, 2007
at 1:06 pm
[...] a biography of me [...]
By: my traumatised son « man about the house on 27 June, 2007
at 6:27 pm
Due to unemployment at the time I was a stay at home dad for a year when my oldest son was born. A great experience. Stay warm…
By: unclemeat on 3 July, 2007
at 3:10 am
Thanks Kevin … we’ll try 
By: Alasdair on 3 July, 2007
at 10:33 am
Any good fishing there?
http://unclemeat.wordpress.com/2005-fishing/
By: unclemeat on 4 July, 2007
at 3:10 am
Alisdair.. the days of having to put up with anti social people are at an end, seek legal advice and visit your council about the neighbours.
I had the same problem a few years ago, now my neighbours live 3 minutes from Dungeness nuclear power station 
in Kent, I swear i can still hear them sometimes.
By: Rooster on 23 November, 2007
at 9:06 pm
Good for you rooster 
We decided that we’d give the legal route a miss as we’d probably have been stuck with them as neighbours anyway (private homes) and instead just upped sticks and moved to the most remote spot we could achieve … our nearest neighbour [aside from the abandoned semi next door] is 300 yards down the road!
By: Alasdair on 23 November, 2007
at 10:57 pm
Hi there,
Came across your blog while doing some research for a study I’m undertaking at the University of Cambridge about fathers who stay at home and are primary caregivers of their children.
If you’re interested in learning more about my study, and providing some insight based on your experience, please feel free to email me on the address provided.
Look forward to hearing from you.
By: Uttama on 18 February, 2008
at 6:35 pm
Hello SAHD Alisdair, ive had a read and so far it all sounds good. Keep up the good work! Now to get my hubby to swop with me- ahhh the ability to go to the loo in an uninterrupted fashion and have cups of tea when I want them….
By: zooarchaeologist on 21 February, 2008
at 2:58 pm
hi there zooarchaeoligist … yes! hmmm, tea, uninterrupted, yay! … if only 
By: Alasdair on 21 February, 2008
at 7:09 pm
[...] a biography of me [...]
By: Wendy Alexander … more popular than “indian sex”!?! « man about the house on 13 May, 2008
at 11:58 am
Hi Alasdair, my wife has some sort of computer thingy which sends her messages about things published on the net about independence for Scotland, and it was her that drew my attention to something on your blog about this, and, as you will realise, I commented on it. You say that you “stay home and look after the kids and the blog’s supposed to be all about that” - well, like you, I have in the past been, for a few years, a “man about the house”, looking after my very young daughter and my even younger son while my partner went out to work. However, when I tell you that my son was born the same year as you, and that my daughter was born in 1975, you will realise that my experience as a house husband is not recent!
By: Dave Coull on 18 May, 2008
at 12:34 am
Hi Dave,
It’s always appreciatted when folks drop-by and post comments, so you’re always welcome.
I keep trying to tell folks that men looking after the kids isn’t such a new phenomenon, but speaking to people, particular from South of the border it’s often looked upon askance … maybe it’s the current climate of ‘fear of men’, although it doesn’t seem to be something I’ve come across too much up here.
Of course, I seem to remember reading or hearing somewhere that it was quite common at one point for men, particularly in Glasgow, to take on an equal share of childcare responsibilities because everyone was so skint it was an imperitive that the women worked too. Wouldn’t be surprising if it turned out to be true really.
Regards
Alasdair
By: Alasdair on 18 May, 2008
at 8:03 pm
