Our 722nd Dad in the Limelight is personal finance family blogger and father, Steven Goodwin. I want to thank Steven Goodwin for being a part of this series. It has been great getting connected with him and now sharing Steven Goodwin with all of you.
1) Tell me about yourself, (as well as how you are in the limelight for my readers knowledge)
My name is Steve Goodwin and I’m a stay at home dad of two girls (4 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old) since August 2016. I love to find fun activities to do with them and learn more about how to influence and help them grow into strong women. I’m loving being able to spend more time with them and introduce them to fun things that I wouldn’t otherwise because I was working a lot.
I also run a personal finance/family blog called My Family On a Budget where I talk about personal finance and share our family journey financially and through the eyes of a parent. If you need to learn how to create a monthly budget or have other personal finance questions you are mulling over, I’d be happy to lend my opinion and help you think it through.
My wife and I paid off over $27k in student loans over a period of 2 years. We have been debt free since 2013 and will never go back! I love to talk to people in the midst of their journey to encourage them to keep on going especially when they are in the longer stretches of going through the debt! It is a hard time, but the end result is soo worth it!
Having worked in cell phone sales for almost 6 and a half years, I really enjoy technology and learning new things and making life simpler with it.
2) Tell me about your family
My family consists of my wife of 9 1/2 years. She is the breadwinner in our family, allowing me to stay home with our two girls. She is a physician recruiter and has worked in the healthcare field for over 12 years and loves it. She is an amazing women and really helps center me on things that are important. I don’t think I would be able to achieve the level of success that we’ve achieved together if she were not with me!
My older daughter, now 4 and a half, loves doing “schoolwork”, which is basically coloring and tracing/writing letters of the alphabet at this point. She is very dramatic when we watch movies and gets very emotional as events unfold. She definitely lends herself to the type a personality as she loves to take charge and lead her younger sister on adventures without my knowledge!
My second daughter is two and a half and is just a lovebug! She knows how to pull my strings and get whatever she wants as she is so stinkin’ cute! We joke that we will probably have to buy her a pony someday. She’s very loving towards animals and loves pointing out airplanes wherever they might appear in her life. In fact, she’s going through a phase now where she has to get our attention until we tell her that we will take her on an airplane someday.
We also have two cats, who are normally nowhere to be found during the day as my daughters love to brush them whenever they are out. One is 12 years old and is a black cat with a white undercoat. We’ve named him Onyx and he’s been with us since he was 8 weeks old. Our other cat’s name is Ruby and she is a tortoiseshell. She’s 9 and we’ve also had her since she was a baby. We love both of them!
3) What has been the largest challenge you have had in being a father?
Being a father in general is never easy.
I would say that the biggest challenge is learning to be more patient than I’ve ever really had to be with requests and fun little games that they play. I’m a very practical person that likes to stay on schedule. Since becoming a stay at home dad in August 2016, I’ve had to somewhat throw my scheduling out the window in an effort to learn to go with the flow with the kiddos. I still struggle with it from time to time, but we are finding our groove!
4) What advice would you give to other fathers?
The best piece of advice that I can think of is to try to be present! It’s amazing how many times I’ve caught myself wandering through my day working on things that are important to me. Yet, when I look back, I’ve found the most joy in my life has come from when I’m actively present in my two daughter’s lives. We all have good intentions to make a better life for our family. However, we are only allotted so much time to build influence with our kids! Try to maximize that time as much as you can. No one is perfect and it’s not something that you will be able to just say that you won and be done with, it is a constant struggle to balance.
Also, read as much as you can about stories from others that have walked the path for perspective. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve found way better ways to handle situations so much better by doing some research and working to delay my negative responses. You are going to lose it sometimes. It’s inevitable. They absolutely know how to push your buttons!!!
5) How have you come to balance parenthood and outside life?
My wife is very supportive of what I’m doing and encourages me as I do, her. She helps provide ample time for me to “get away” to recharge. I also have family members that love to spend extra time with the girls so that I can do things. It’s a great relationship. I do get the “gimme’s” sometimes, but it makes me more intentional about the time that I do have.
One of my biggest things is putting my kids third on my list. God is first, my wife second. By doing this, I and they know that we aren’t the center of the world and we can’t have everything all the time.
6) What have you learned from the fathers that you have interacted with?
One of the best things I’ve learned from other father’s I’ve interacted with is that I’m not alone. My kids aren’t the only ones that have rough days, or have outbursts at the most inopportune times. I have learned how to be more intentional by reading about other dad’s who’ve either regretted the way they’ve walked their path or are walking it now.
7) What else would you share regarding your experiences as a father thus far?
Even though being a father at times can put a lot of stress on you, being the leader and the male figure that they look up to, it has to be one of the most rewarding roles I’ve ever been in. I’ve been given more joy with my kids than I’d have ever received any other way in my opinion. Also, I can’t believe the true love that I have for my kids and how it just came out when they were born.
8) What have been the most memorable experiences that you have had thus far as a parent?
One of the most memorable experiences that I have had so far as a parent has been the utter panic that I’m not prepared or that I won’t do it right. I remember sitting in the chair in the recovery room the first night after our first, Evelyn, was born. I was holding her and I remember thinking to myself: “Now I know why they say that you won’t get any sleep until they are out of the house!” I was so tired from the day’s activities that I literally couldn’t think to put her down in the bed and thought I’d have to hold her the whole time. I look back and laugh about it now, but I remember the utter fear that swept over me for a few minutes in that experience.
Another experience was when I was putting in a new laminate floor in our kitchen and I messed something up. My daughter was there with me, mimicking my every move. It was very funny until I messed something up and uttered a word I shouldn’t have used in front of her and then she repeated it. It was then that it really sank home that they are always watching, always listening and always repeating your every move.
Lastly, I love having conversations with them. It’s really cool seeing how they view the world and getting immersed in their reality. All that innocence and how they are so creative and imaginative helps me really start thinking that way again.
If you have any questions for Steven Goodwin, please leave a comment here and I will make sure that he gets them so that he may be able to respond!
——————————————————————————————-
New to the Divadom?
Please Subscribe to my RSS Feed! Subscribe in a reader
Questions?Drop me a line at dadofdivas@gmail.com
The post Dads in the Limelight – Personal Finance Family Blogger and Father, Steven Goodwin appeared first on Dad of Divas.