Lea and Timo are the mother and father of little Eden. Both have been married before in the past, but none have had children in their previous marriages, so Eden is the first child for the both of them. After Eden was born many things have changed. Timo stepped out of working life and became a stay-at-home dad when Lea returned to work after her maternity leave. Now Eden spends her days with a child minder and Timo works on information technology related projects.

The family lives in Pispala, Tampere. Lea works at Nokia Corporation as a software architecture planner. The family's everyday life is mostly built around Eden's routines and Lea's work. Timo looks after Eden's daily routines and Lea tries to arrange her work in a way that leaves the family as much time as possible.

Home has become the hub of their life, but their social life is still lively: Lea exercises and meets her friends, Timo is interested in music. They are both interested in information technology related matters also outside of work. They take Eden to music playgroup once a week.

Wednesday 2 February 2011

The morning in Pispala was peaceful. Lea and Timo were quietly bustling in the kitchen while Eden was still sleeping. They microwaved their morning oatmeal. Lea and Timo leafed through the morning paper while they had their breakfasts and Lea checked her mobile for last night’s e-mails.

Before she woke Eden up Lea got herself ready; make up, brushing the teeth, hair and jewellery, and finally packing her work bag. Then it was time to wake up Eden. She woke up happy and wanted to play with her Moomins straight away. She had become a Moomin fan during their visit to Moominworld last summer. However, it was potty first, clothes on and then breakfast.

Lea was ready to go and Timo and Eden continued their morning.

Lea's way to work was fine despite the sleety weather - there wasn't much traffic on the road. At the parking place Lea met a colleague, who had come from Helsinki to have a meeting with her in Tampere. They would sit down to plan the schedules and targets for the next six month period. In between they had lunch at the staff cafeteria, and had coffees and Shrove buns to go for the meeting.

At home Timo and Eden had got things to the point where they would be ready to leave to the child minder's. On the way they stopped at the recycling point, where they left the cardboard waste. Eden was happy to stay at the child minder's and Timo got to deal with the day's business. On the way home he picked up some groceries: bread, milk and some convenience food - organic products too.

Once Timo returned home he made fire in the fireplace and then went to his study. He was working on a project on multimedia technology.

Lea's meeting ended and she was able to go home on time. Timo also finished his work and went to pick up Eden from the child minder's. Eden had taken a nap and when Timo arrived the children were playing outside. There was a big frozen hill next door to the child minder's. Eden sat in the child minder's lap on a piece of plastic carpet and together they slid down the hill.

The afternoon sun peeked from behind the clouds when Timo and Eden drove to their yard. Before they went in, father and daughter built a snowman on the yard. Lea had already returned from work and when Eden came in, Lea took her out of her overall so they could play with play dough together. The play dough turned into Moomins, of course. In the meantime father microwaved Eden's dinner.

After dinner Timo and Eden were off to Lempäälä to see Grandma. Lea, on the other hand, had on her schedule a regular meeting, cell church, with her women friends. The women get together at one of the members’ home, catch up, discuss on a certain religious theme and pray together. There are also some snacks; today they had some baguette and Runeberg's tortes.

Grandma was already waiting in the yard for Timo and Eden when they arrived. Timo plowed the snow away from the yard, and Grandma and Eden made a little sled tour along the nearby roads. Grandma had made the wool blanket that was in the sled. When they got inside, Grandma and Eden drew some Moomins and Eden also played the piano. Before heading back home, they had their evening oatmeal.

Timo and Eden made it to home yard simultaneously with Lea, who returned from her meeting. It was late, so Lea immediately began with Eden's bedtime routines. Timo did some kitchen chores before he went to help Lea with Eden. Eden fell asleep after her bath, a Moomin story and a bedtime song. Now Timo and Lea had time to sit down and talk about the day – and to spend a moment at the computer.

Thoughts about everyday life

"The different timetables make the days feel strenuous." –Timo

"After Eden has gone to bed I always do a little media check-up, that is I go on certain sites, to see what's going on in the world and then I also watch something scatty on online TV – like Project Runway or Idols - " -Lea

"Bodypump is my favourite training class – it's like an hour-long instructed exercise session with a bar with these different weights you can choose there and it's mostly about muscle conditioning, but like there's the music and you do it together in the same rhythm and you have the instructor who pushes you and that's the thing." –Lea

"Timo then usually finds the movie somewhere on the net so we won't go to a rental store but watch it there then. – So there we watch it on the living room screen and then have something to eat at the same time." -Lea

"I wanted to experience this staying at home, the father's role at home and then Lea was ready to go to work – and on the other hand we didn't at that point with Eden being so small to have her in a nursery or anywhere." –Timo [about his decision to become a stay-at-home dad]

"Christian faith is important for us personally and has an impact on our life choices." -Timo