How common are work-at-home dads? Bill Michelson, Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, says it's difficult to pinpoint the number of work-at-home people in Canada; and he estimates the figure could be anywhere from six per cent to twenty per cent of the working population. He has noticed, however, that the current majority of home workers are men.

Self-discipline made Paul Lima a successful freelance writer four years before he became a father. When Kyah came into his life, he had to learn to strike a balance between his old life and his new one. Paul and his partner Lynda helped ease the transition by setting up schedules so that Kyah would know what was happening during the day. "Daddy's going to be working from this time to that time," explains Lima. "At this time you're having lunch, and at this time I'm going to take a break and we're going for a walk, or we're doing this or that."

Lima doesn't want his work routine to be so strict that he misses the benefits of staying home with Kyah, who is now 12, and because then he might as well have an office job. "Right now, she likes to come home and play basketball," he says. "I look really seriously at what I'm doing; and I'll say to myself, 'Would 30 or 40 minutes of basketball now prevent me from finishing this project?' and if the answer is no, then I'll play."

Feuer's son Benjamin may be too young for basketball, but the rewards of working from home have been just as rich. Seeing Ben's day-to-day development is an experience he would have missed if he'd stayed in the stock industry. "He will literally pick things up from one day to the next," says Feuer. He also gets a kick out of Ben imitating him, by picking up his toy phone to make important calls of his own.

Conference calling and diapers
Having a two-year-old around the house while trying to run a business poses its own set of challenges. A mobile phone system has worked wonders by allowing Feuer to do business and take care of Ben at the same time. "I have a nice cordless phone system here with a headset so I can pay attention or at least keep an eye on him and move very freely around the house," he says. "I have had fully functional conference calls with me changing diapers, and clients, as far as I know, have no idea."

Lima's biggest challenges have come from helping Kyah understand that at certain times, her dad needs to have some quiet in the house to work. This means that Kyah and her friends have to find alternative play areas like the basement or the backyard.

One of the ways that Lima has dealt with this challenge is by including Kyah in his work. She does some filing around the office and even helped her dad kick around a few ideas for articles. "She knows what I do, and she sees me doing it; in some small ways, she helps as well. She wants to be part of the business." He even sees glimmers of a would-be entrepreneur in Kyah. "I can see her seeing me making money doing this and realizing, 'Hey, if you can come up with an idea and sell it, it's worthwhile and somebody will pay you for it; and that's kind of cool.'"

But are you really working?
Michelson points out that being a work-at-home dad may not be as idyllic as people might think. "People who work at home are often under suspicion by friends and neighbours or by colleagues, if they're part of a larger firm, to the effect that maybe they aren't working very hard."

For Lima, the issue is one that he hasn't really encountered in the past. In fact, he says, most people express awe over his ability to maintain the focus and determination needed to make a living from home. "The few times I've encountered it, I exaggerate: I'm always working you just don't see the results of my work. I just make it seem like I'm always going, and that shuts them up."

"I try to avoid getting into those situations to begin with," says Feuer. He has taken great care to cover up his working from home. A toll-free number, cell phones and a contact manager keep things running smoothly. Those people who do know that Daniel works from home don't seem to mind. "They still contact me for work, and that's the bottom line."