A few years ago, David Diebold took the brave decision to give up a full-time
job to be a stay-at-home dad. Thing is, there was already a stay-at-home mum,
three hairy monosyllabic teenage boys, and a pathologically cheerful, explosively
hormonal pre-teen girl.
What follows is a year at the coal face of parental ineptitude, a year in which
David learns that helping to keep the well-oiled machine of a busy family
home firing on all cylinders requires, well, oil... and a machine.
If a family of six in a rapidly decaying house weren’t enough to contend with,
there’s Molly the ancient, toothless, perpetually molting dog, hell bent on mur-
dering the postman. Good enough reason as any to hit the wine.
It’s not all missteps and pratfalls. Amid the chaos of life, David and family
must contend with the trials of teenage angst, and the death of a loved one.
Can he survive 12 months with his sanity intact? Sure. But can everyone else?
