My name is Jason and I am a stay-at-home dad.

It sounds like a confession when written like that doesn’t it?

But back in 2007 when I decided that was what I was to become, some of my friends looked at me as if I had gone crazy.

The world we live in is very different to that of past generations. Women have achieved great success in fields once considered the sole preserve of men. Every year, the percentage of women on the boards of FTSE 100 firms increases.

Yet when it comes to men performing traditional women’s roles, back then I found that there was still a certain stigma attached. When I mentioned that my wife was going back to work and that I was going to stay at home, reactions varied considerably.

For every supportive comment there was a negative in return: “I couldn’t be a kept man”.

“A child should be with its mother”. Despite these enlightened times we live in, it appears that when it comes to child-rearing, many still believe that the man’s role is that of the hunter-gatherer.

There is quite an age gap between my wife, Claire, and I.

When we met, she was 21 and I was 36.

Parenthood came to us just a year later when our first son, Ollie, was born and we were both delighted.

When it came to work though, we were at opposite ends of the spectrum.

Claire was just beginning her career, whereas I had recently taken redundancy after a 15 year career in market research.

It seemed the obvious thing to do was for her to pursue her career and for me to become a full time dad.

I wanted to provide too, and found the perfect solution.

For years I had been DJing as a hobby and now saw an opportunity to turn this into an income.

I set up my own disco business and very soon was living a double life of stay-at-home dad by day and DJ by night.

I had achieved a dream scenario where I got to spend my life with my kids but without being the aforementioned “kept man”.

Our second child, Jamie, was born in 2010, and, soon after, I began writing down my experiences.

At first this was via a blog which eventually led on to publishing two books.

I found that stay at home mums were fascinated to hear about experiences from a man’s perspective in their traditional role. It was very strange to begin with.

The first time I took Ollie to a stay and play centre, when he was less than a year old, I went into the baby section and found myself surrounded by breast-feeding women.

I am not sure who was more embarrassed, them or me.

I was acutely aware that I was the only man there, that’s for sure.

I’ve come a long way in the six years since then and look forward to sharing some of my experiences with you via this column in the weeks ahead.