07 Apr 2020  |   03:20am IST

When daddies are home

‘Daddy’s home”, is often a cry you hear in many homes, as dads get back home from work or an outstation trip. But in the last three weeks, dads have always been at home. And homes are adjusting to this phenomenon with happy kids but even happier daddies

Akshay Naik from Vasco is having a great time enjoying the company of his son Aariv and niece Tanisi during the lockdown as he says, “I am getting a lot of time to spend with my child since its a lockdown. Work from home has allowed me to spend some time with him. Time passes too quickly in his company, cuddling and laughing.

When my son is asleep Tanisi my niece and I do wall paintings and drawings. My wife will have a tough time after the lockdown is over and I will be back at work.”

Keval Raikar a class 8 student from Margao is facing a crisis at home as he expressed, “My father is a little strict about things at home and is very systematic. He works for a private firm as an accountant and spends most of his time working on the laptop. I hardly get to talk to him. It makes no much difference even though there is a lockdown.”

Children understand very little about the lockdown period especially the younger ones. When they see their working parents home, it means a holiday for them. Very excited about the very fact that her father is home Natalie Da Silva a class 7 student from Dona Paula says, “I am very happy to see my father home all the time talking to me, cracking jokes, teaching me new tricks and much more. We pray together and eat together, and I definitely cherish these moments with my father.”

“Lockdown has helped me immensely to spend quality time with my two-year-old daughter. The time we spent helped us understand her better. I also had an opportunity to celebrate her 2nd birthday this month amid limited resources and close family members. They all chipped in with home-made delicacies. It’s fun teaching her some nursery rhymes and the way she responds with her cute recitations. It will be a memorable time with my family as I will recollect it in the future”, expressed Ashwin de Souza from Aldona, a professor.

For most of the working fathers, it is the best time of the year despite so many challenges. Lockdown has surely created wonderful moments for dads and kids together. Clifton Fernandes, from Verla-Parra is a physical education teacher and engages in many sports activities but now his enjoying the lockdown period with his daughter Cathleen. “My day starts with taking my daughter from a stroll in the garden.

Through her routine activities these days I’ve started living my childhood. Singing rhymes and babbling is our favorite activity. The best part of this lockdown is I could see my daughter stand for the first time. She does play by herself but looking at her every day doing some new action, coming up with new sounds, exploring each room of the house and responding to our talk, is the best part of staying home during the lockdown. I hardly use my mobile phone unless I get work-related calls.”

With work from home daddies in so many homes in Goa, fatherhood has brought new joys, that were unthinkable before the lockdown.