You might have wondered why there have been so few updates recently on my blog. The answer is twofold a) my creative juices have gone into finishing off my book (DevOps for the Modern Enterprise) and b) earlier this year my son was born, which is the best possible reason to spend less time in front of the PC. As things are settling down I will start to write more frequently again, which brings me to today’s post: I have decided to write some blogs about my upcoming paternity leave, so you will see some less technical posts in between technical posts.

The reason I decided to do this is to encourage more fathers to take paternity leave and get them some honest first hand descriptions on how it plays out. I have learned over the last few months that many fathers have not taken paternity leave for many different reasons: career, company policies, being unsure what to expect as full time dad. So I decided to write about my experience.

I am about two weeks away from taking around three months off as full time dad. My son is 9 months old and he is a handful. I have heaps of respect for the work that my wife is doing to keep him on a schedule and look after him. The long nights of getting him back to sleep and looking after him during the days sound tough…soon I will know first hand how it is, something that so far has been limited to weekends when I don’t have to work.

You might wonder whether I am worried about what will happen at work when I am gone for such a long time and the truthful answer is “a little”. Of course there is that little voice in my head telling me that lots of important things will happen while I am gone and that I should really be there for it. But then I think of my incredible team that will cover for me when I am off and I know they will do a fantastic job. Over the last few months they already picked up a lot of the scope of work that I would usually deal with and have done great. My bosses are extremely supportive of me taking my paternity time and understand that things will be a little bit different for a period of time.

Until recently I thought that work (and potential career impacts) are the only things to worry about, but then I started to hear from mums and dads on how tough it can be to be the full time parent, the days where you only speak “baby language” and miss a meaningful conversation. The days when all hell breaks loose and you struggle to keep the baby fed and clean. The days when finding the time for a shower and a warm meal is a real challenge. The days when you had hardly any sleep and the little one wants his normal routine while you can hardly keep your eyes open. Phew…

Perhaps this gig is going to be tougher than I thought…but then I look at the little man and see him smile and I know I will enjoy the time no matter how hard it might be. Work will go on and I am sure I will catch-up when I am back. My team will do great and I will see my little man grow over the last 3 months of his first year in this world. I will keep you all posted how my paternity leave is playing out with regular blog posts.