Life/Work - Issue 33

Of course, finding just the right balance is never easy. Consider Matt Berry. After years spent working as a stand-up comedian in the club circuit and kicking around ideas for television sitcoms, Berry, 43, got together with his partner, Ric Swartzlander, 38, to create a show based on their own experiences as stay-at-home dads. Network executives kept turning down their idea, on the grounds that audiences would never find a full-time dad sympathetic. But last fall, NBC finally gave the go-ahead for "Daddio." When I caught up with Berry in January, he was in the midst of shooting the show's pilot, which was scheduled to air in March.

"It's kinda weird," Berry said. "Here I am, making this show about stay-at-home dads, and the result is that I've seen my three kids less during the past couple of weeks than at any time I can remember. Hopefully, the show will be illuminating for others -- even if my own fatherless kids are destined now to end up in reform school because I'm not around anymore."

Tony Schwartz (tschwartz@fastcompany.com) is a writer and speaker who leads workshops on life/work balance. Visit At-Home Dad on the Web (www.athomedad.com). You can order Curtis Cooper's "At Home Dad Handbook" on the Web (www.slowlane.com).