Daddy's Home

As the fabric of urban society shifts, more and more fathers are cutting back on their careers and staying at home to spend quality time with their kids.

- Cynthia Lewis

When comedian José Covaco was growing up, his mother pulled the weight of both parents. “My dad was in Dubai; he was our bread and butter.” A generation later, Covaco can barely get as far as the toilet without his toddler’s permission. Covaco, better known by his social media handle Hoezaay, is not quite the traditional dad. While he insists — quite fairly — that his wife is the real soldier, his flexible work hours mean he spends most of his time at home with his daughter, Chloe. (Chloe is all of two years old, and is already famous thanks to regular appearances on her father’s Snapchat account.) “I’m very lucky to be in the position I am [in] with social media because I shoot all my videos at home, I shoot down the road, so I’m always around,” he says. “Sometimes it’s not a good thing also, because now my daughter expects me to be around. Sometimes I can’t even go to the loo. I have to say, ‘Baby, can I go and poop?’ And she’ll say, ‘No dada, no poopoo.’ It’s crazy. She made me keep the door open!” When he talks about his daughter, Covaco’s already expressive face is in peak form: all bright eyes and wide grins. The conversation is peppered with proclamations of insanity (“it’s crazy;” “she’s mad;” “kids are nuts;” “they’re psychopaths”). He makes parenting sound like the perfect nightmare you can’t wait to sign up for.