Long before they had children, Christopher and Susan Richards of Nashville, Tennessee, decided that one of them would stay home with the kids. Neither one liked the idea of putting a child in day care, especially if one of them could provide care. In the two years prior to their son Cameron's birth, they paid off bills, downsized their automobiles, and generally weaned themselves to one income. When it was time for one of them to stay at home, Christopher quit his job and became the primary caregiver.

"It was a lot of stress those first few months," he remembers. "My wife breast-fed and expressed milk, and my son would not take formula. A couple of times, I ran out of breast milk and I called my wife and said, 'You have to come home, now!"

Stay-at-home dads are not a new phenomena, but the choice to be the primary caregiver to their children is one dads are making more frequently. And despite those moments of frustration, confusion, and outright befuddlement that fathers like Christopher Richards experience, most dads consider it one of the happiest choices of their lives. But it's a choice that requires plenty of soul-searching and practical planning along with ample input from the rest of the family (especially spouses).

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