How many working fathers regret not being more involved in their child’s life? What if you got a second chance, would you take it?
Jason Love, a teacher turned human resources professional, got that chance and he did. Jason, our Lead Dad of the Week from Westfield, Indiana, became a father for the first time during his senior year of high school. He went to college and right into being a middle school science teacher to support his daughter.
Work, parenting, life – it was all a blur. But he made it, and he has a good relationship with his daughter, now 20.
Married again, Jason started to rethink what he wanted to do. Being a teacher during Covid outside of Indianapolis taught him that he no longer wanted to teach. He was able to transfer those skills to working as an outsourced provider of human resources support.
His wife is an occupational therapist in a neonatal intensive care unit at the local hospital. Her hours are fixed, which is good for planning but bad for spontaneously responding to the things that a young child needs.
So, when their son was born a year ago, Jason, now 39, planned to leave his job to be a full-time Lead Dad. Kudos to his employer, New Focus HR, which is walking the walk here: they found a solution for him to work regular hours when his wife wasn’t at the hospital and then work when he could mornings and evenings when he had his son Aaron full time.
“We looked at the cost of daycare and realized that if I can work parttime and be with him, we net a profit at the end of the month,” Jason said. “I’ve loved it. I had a lot of different tasks at work. Now I have a lot of different tasks with him and with my job. It’s been great to have both aspects going on.”
While he’s often the only dad at events for his son, Jason, who has been in recovery for six years, said he’s just happy to be there watching his son grow and thrive. “I’m fine to embrace awkwardness,” he said. “Throughout my life I’ve had a lot of experience being the awkward guy. I had learning disabilities. There are plenty of awkward moments in my alcoholism. If I can deal with those shenanigans, I can walk in with a baby.”
He added: “I may stand out but I’m not standing out for a bad reason.”
In his spare time, he’s encouraging other men in different stages of recovery through a program he created call Upcovery.
Welcome, Jason, to The Company of Dads!
