I'm a stay-at-home father. My wife stayed home for a few years for traditional reasons, and then got an offer that was too good to refuse. So I left my positio

I'm a stay-at-home father. My wife stayed home for a few years for traditional reasons, and then got an offer that was too good to refuse. So I left my position to support and my family when she returned to work, as well as because I was looking for a career change. So we've taken turns. I haven't really stopped working in some ways. I still serve on many professional committees and positions and do consulting, but don't have a salary per se, and wouldn't survive financially on my own. I've found myself asking the same question you have. The linked essay really resonates with me as do many of the posts here. Society really makes so many assumptions about peoples' lives. There's a lot of lost opportunities because of impulsive, angry, or prejudiced decisions. I'd say in the last 10 years of my life a dominant theme has been a feeling of being walled in by others' prejudices and presumptions, of being typecast in a lot of ways. Not just with regard to gender (that might be the least of it really), but with regard to what I can offer, what my skillset is, what I'm interested in doing, and all sorts of other things.