• Nicholas Gilpin and his wife decided he would leave his full-time job to care for their first child. • A second kid and three years later, Gilpin has felt guilt for not providing as much financially. • He said the reward of raising his sons outweighs those feelings, and he's glad to be there for them.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Nicholas Gilpin, a 38-year-old stay-at-home dad and entrepreneur from Fair Oaks, California. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I never planned to be a stay-at-home dad.

When I was an information technology consultant at KPMG, there were some weeks when I worked almost 100 hours across all seven days.

Now, I spend those hours with my sons — a very different environment. Almost three years since becoming a full-

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