Househusband

"I can't do it!" Hamal sobbed and spun the wheel on the car until we were headed back towards the gate. "I'm going home. I was never cut out for the police, it was all my mother's idea; she wanted me to be like a daughter to her and made a tomgirl out of me. When all I ever wanted to be was a simple house husband like my father!"

— The Stainless Steel Rat's Revenge

This is a male character who serves as the primary domestic in his family as opposed to his (usually female) significant other. He is organized when it comes to homemaking, knows how to cook and clean, and is good with kids. This is usually because it is his partner who works to support the family, and due to an unwillingness to have both parents absent, he takes it upon himself to do the "wife's duties." Alternatively, it could be because his partner lacks competence in such duties and he has to fill the role by necessity.

Such a character is often contrasted with a less-than-feminine female character, or another male character who is a "real man", and thus useless around the house. The usual Double Standard applies in that, for the most part, such a character is assumed to be less "manly" than one who doesn't do these things, because (for some reason) men aren't supposed to be good at these sort of things. Quite often, a man who is a full-time househusband is seen as somehow a failure or a "bum" for "not working," even by people who have no problem with women being full-time homemakers and who would never even hint that a woman who stayed home to keep house and take care of the kids didn't have "a job". In addition, a lot of the "support network" of stay-at-home moms is often unavailable to a stay-at-home dad, because being a male makes the househusband an outsider, even if he has the same day-to-day experiences and problems as the stay-at-home mom.

Additionally, a full-time househusband may be patronizingly praised as though he's obviously making some incredible sacrifice, since of course men can't possibly enjoy childcare or domestic work, and/or somehow exceeding the limits of what men are capable of by displaying any actual competence at those things. Sometimes this happens while other people are calling him a bum.

When Played for Laughs, the trope is often a part of a Fish out of Water story wherein a man with no prior experience at, or interest in, domestic work is forced by circumstances into the House Husband role and has to adapt quickly.

Compare Family Man, Real Men Wear Pink and Real Men Cook. Contrast Men Can't Keep House (and Dads Can't Cook) and House Wife. Often married to a High-Powered Career Woman.

Obviously this is occasional Truth in Television. The phrase "house husband" was popularized in the press when John Lennon retired from music for five years to "bake bread and take care of the baby".

Etymologically speaking, this phrase or compound word suffers from semantic redundancy because the word husband derives from the Old English compounds that literally meant "householder".

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Examples:

Advertising

• Surprisingly, this trope is played straight in one commercial for Dyson vacuum cleaners portrays a family whose mother (alongside the naturally messy kids) is constantly dropping things, tracking in dirt, spilling food and drinks, and so on, and it's her husband who is constantly following her around picking up after her.
• Pinol, a floor cleaning liquid from Mexico, has some commercials playing this trope, even if the Dad isn't able at first to keep the house clean or doesn't know how to. It's particularly surprising since Mexico has still a conservative opinion about gender roles.
• Tide detergent made a commercial entitled "Dad Mom", featuring this sort of character in an attempt to be egalitarian in their praise of anyone who stays at home and takes care of the kids and family. While their intentions were laudable, the commercials dipped deep into the offensive stereotypes regarding House Husbands. The resultant backlash from real House Husbands caused Tide to pull the commercial from circulation within weeks. It's to their credit that Tide made some of the comments and emails they received public.
  "Hi. I'm a dad. Not a "dadmom", just a dad. And I can do anything this asshole can do because I'm a fucking dad, not because I'm somehow also a "mom". I don't have to qualify it by turning myself into an offensive cartoon version of what a caring father is. Your commercial is insulting to all fathers out there who stay at home and take care of their family. I'm not a "dadmom". I'm just a dad. Because dads already know how to do this shit without being stereotypes."

Anime & Manga

• In Case Closed, when Wataru Takagi mistakenly believes that his girlfriend Miwako Sato is pregnant, one of his imagine spots about their probable married life has him retiring from police work and happily becoming one of these.
• Lelouch Lamperouge from Code Geass is an excellent cook, knows how to sew, and is a consummate neat freak, all as a result of looking after his ill sister for years. This especially contrasts with his partner C.C., a total slob who leaves trash all over the place and would gleefully eat Pizza Hut each and every meal if she could.
• In Cooking Papa, it's kinda downplayed with Airawa Kazumi. Both he and his wife work, but only he can cook in the family (and his office is just 5 minutes from apartment), so he's the one who takes care of food.
• In The Devil is a Part-Timer!, Alciel turns from a Demon General in Ente Isla to this once he arrives on Earth. Definitely Played for Laughs.
• Youichi from Father and Son becomes one during his wife's absence. He does the cleaning, laundry and the cleaning as well as taking care of his young son.
• In Fruits Basket, in spite of his temper, Kyo is shown to be a good cook and able to at least take care of himself. He generally doesn't do it often because he doesn't like the people he currently lives with (except for Tohru), but did have to help out with the housekeeping when he was raised by his less able former guardian. In an aside note in the last volume of the series, the author also notes that Kyo will be "a kind father".
• In Happy Yarou Wedding, Yuuhi takes a job as a nanny/housekeeper for a professor from school. When he becomes part of the family he naturally ends up being this trope.
• Hyakunichikan!!: Kouji remarks that Shuuto has "the skills of a housewife". Understandable, for a Minor Living Alone, especially one who has to take care of a kid.
• I Can't Understand What My Husband Is Saying has Hajime, who works from home and is a far better chef than his wife.
• Kouji Takanashi from Interviews with Monster Girls took it upon himself to be a stay at home dad after his twin daughters were born. His wife is the breadwinner of the family after all.
• In Kekkaishi, main character Yoshimori's dad is one of these, in the absence of his mother. He's portrayed as a mild-mannered generally decent guy. He even seems to have inspired Yoshimori to become a baker. On the other hand, his wife, whose business is more of the supernatural detective kind like her father's and her sons', turns out not to be as good at cooking as he is.
• Love Lucky: Fuuta might as well become one. Kirari even suggests he could quit his job since she has enough money for the two of them to live without his income. (He's shocked when she showed him the digits) However, he refuses because he feels he'd be her gigolo if he agreed. Considering she only wants him to quit so she could enjoy her days off in a more lustful way... As he leaves for work, she decides to use her day off to do housework only to find out everything is already done, leaving her feeling like a failure of a wife. Fuuta feels he was too rude with his words and tells her he won't quit so she'll see him as a reliable adult. In the end, after they no longer have to keep their marriage a secret, they realize they still won't have much time together while the both of them have jobs. Since there are things Kirari still wanted to do as an idol, Fuuta ends up becoming a househusband.
• Kimihito from Monster Musume excels at and actually enjoys cooking, cleaning and sewing. Although his Unwanted Harem of Monster Girls do help out at times.
• The eponymous protagonist of Monthly Girls' Nozaki-kun is another house-husband in the making, as he lives by himself and is very good at handling domestic duties. Nozaki frequently makes food for his assistants especially when they are over at his place, including the one girl (and his admirer) Sakura who usually berates herself not having as much "feminine power" as he does. He appears to have helped out at home too, to the point that his father mistook Nozaki's cooking for the mother's cooking. When he gives Sakura's brother homemade snacks, helps him to clean up and folds his uniform nicely, Towa snarks that his household specs are his only appeal.
• Tanda from Moribito: Guardian of the Spirit, a rather feminine healer-in-training, in contrast to his tomboy love interest/childhood friend Balsa, a bodyguard-for-hire.
• Yaichi in My Brother's Husband is a stay-at-home single dad to his young daughter after his divorce.
• Shinji Ikari from Neon Genesis Evangelion is definitely a House Husband in training. His roommate/commander is a total slob and Cordon Bleugh Chef -and his Tsundere Love Interest is not much better-, so he takes care of just about all the cooking and cleaning duties once he moves in.
• Yuuya from Nukoduke isn't married, but he's so good at doing housework that his adopted kids/pets see him as their mother and tried to get him a mother's day gift. He does have a heterosexual life partner whom he makes food for, and a flashback showed that he usually cooked for his girlfriend instead of the other way around.
• Pokémon: The Series:
  • This was a result of Brock's Promotion to Parent status when his mom vanished and later his dad does. He does do quite a good job of taking care of his many younger siblings and was able to list them to his father Flint who returned (Brock's mom returned while Brock was in Johto). He even lampshaded that Ash and Misty can't travel well or eat properly without him.
  • Cilan is taking over this role in Best Wishes, although Iris is at least savvy enough to fend for herself.
• Madoka's father Tomohisa in Puella Magi Madoka Magica. He's so good at it that his wife Junko is the breadwinner of the family while he happily takes care of the children.
• Kenshin from Rurouni Kenshin is a textbook example. When he moves into Kaoru's dojo he takes over the laundry, shopping, cooking, and even child-sitting duties, always with maximum cheerfulness and reasonable efficiency (he's not exactly a good cook, but anyone's better than Kaoru) Considering his One-Man Army past, this serves mostly to underscore his Atoner and Broken Ace tendencies.
• In Saiyuki, Hakkai lives with Gojyo and manages to turn his bachelor pad into a home worth returning to. He cooks! He cleans! He nags Gojyo right out of the habit of using beer cans as ashtrays! And of course, he continues to play this role for the team as they travel. In Saiyuki Gaiden, on the other hand, Hakkai's previous incarnation Tenpou was a total slob, and Gojyo's previous incarnation Kenren was the one who was forever cleaning and organizing Tenpou's office for him.
• Haise Sasaki from Tokyo Ghoul:Re is often compared to a housewife. He treats his subordinates like his own children, handling a variety of domestic duties as well as training them. In particular, he's noted to be an exceptionally skilled chef that enjoys cooking up meals for them. In the 2016 Calendar, he represents "Housewife Rest Day". An omake after he leaves the team features Urie wondering how he managed it all, calling Sasaki a monster for juggling work and domestic duties so well.
• Ryuuji from Toradora! is a variation on this, as he plays this role to both his own mother and Taiga. And enjoys it.
• UFO Princess Valkyrie: Kazuto. In one episode, he participates in a "bridal training game" along with several other cast-members, including the eponymous Valkyrie (albeit in her childlike Sleep-Mode Size). At the end, the game crowns the finest "bride"... him. Responsible, skilled at cooking and cleaning, kind, and even knows flower-arrangement somehow.
• The Way of the Househusband is the story of Tatsu, the eponymous house husband (who is also an ex-yakuza) of a career woman. Hilarity Ensues as he attempts to incorporate his yakuza ways into his new house duties, a job he takes very seriously.

Comic Books

• Ben Grimm in Fantastic Four: The End is one of these, spending most of his time at home with the kids.
• In Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow?, Lois Lane continues to work while her husband, a mechanic named Jordan Elliot, stays home with their son Jonathan. Jordan is really a depowered Superman, of course.
• The original version of Lightning Lad became this in Legion of Super-Heroes before the Five Years Later Legion manifested. While Saturn Girl went back on duty as a Legionnaire, Garth chose to stay at home and watch after their twin sons. A spotlight issue revealed that, while Garth did worry about Imra, he enjoyed watching after the kids. Also of note, there was nothing about this Played for Laughs other than some trouble with a food preparation machine. The very same spotlight issue featured Garth going up against his evil older brother Lightning Lord.
• Wonder Woman (1942): The original (Earth-Two) Steve Trevor retired and raised his and Wonder Woman's daughter and kept up the house while she continued to act as a hero, ambassador and mentor. The Silver Age Wonder Woman occasionally visits them in their reality and their family is quite happy.

Fan Works

• How the Light Gets In: Dean is the homemaker and Laurel is the breadwinner for their family, but he occasionally works a few shifts as a mechanic if they needed extra money. The story doesn't look down on Dean for this, but the rest of Team Arrow seemed to dismissively think of think as nothing but a "stay at home dad". Boy were they wrong.
  • In an argument with Quentin, Dean accuses him and Dinah for judging and condemning him for this, and they'd have a higher opinion of him if he worked and Laurel was a housewife.
• Many Neon Genesis Evangelion fanfics take Shinji Ikari's House Husband credentials from canon and run with them, sometimes to exaggerated levels. Some specific examples:
  • Advice and Trust: Shinji is the one makes all household chores in Misato's apartment while his guardian Misato and his roommate -and secret girlfriend- Asuka do nothing (except praising his cooking skills sometimes). So what happens when Shinji and Asuka decide to mess with Misato's head? Asuka wears an apron, cooks and insists she doeoveragain.
  • The Child of Love: Shinji is the one does all chores in the Katsuragi household. When he is away, the place quickly becomes a mess.
  • In Children of an Elder God, Shinji takes care of all household chores in the Misato's apartment because Misato is a slob and Asuka was banned from the kitchen after an ill-fated attempt to make a pizza.
  • Evangelion 303: When Asuka moves with Shinji, it quickly becomes obvious who is the better homemaker. Shinji is an excellent cook and he is used to take care of himself and keep his house clean and tidy. Asuka didn't know how to cook before moving in and she's barely better at chores.
  • HERZ: Shinji is the one make all domestic chores in the Ikari’s homestead. It is lampshaded several times.
    • In chapter 4:
      "Oh Hikari, you're such a great cook. Maybe Shinji could pick up some tips from you," said Asuka between bites.
      "Oh, you're so lucky, Asuka. Shinji cooks, cleans and looks after the baby while you bring home the bacon," teased Hikari. Being used to all the house-husband jokes, Asuka decided to play along.
  • Last Child of Krypton: When Shinji started living with Misato and Asuka, he quickly became in charge of all household chores. Asuka joked that he was a housebroken male.
  • In Once More with Feeling Shinji makes all domestic chores since Misato is a slob and Asuka doesn't care as long as she doesn't have to do them.
    "Well I have to say, having a house broken male around is a more useful thing then I gave Misato credit for"
  • Neon Genesis Evangelion: Genocide: Shinji is the one makes all household chores in Misato's apartment... although one of his flat-mates often complains about him always taking too long.
  • Scar Tissue: This is in fact a plot point: Shinji was the one made all household chores in Misato's apartment, and he is hospitalised for several weeks. During that time Asuka realizes she is barely capable to cook and keep their house and herself clean, and she feels mortified thinking that Misato and she took him for granted and never showed enough gratitude.
  • Superwomen of Eva 2: Lone Heir of Krypton: Shinji takes care of all domestic chores in Katsuragi's residence. It bothers Asuka, who thinks he is too committed to play the house-husband role and they are taking advantage of it.
    Honestly, the boy took to the task of playing nursemaid with far more gusto than she felt a man should.
  • Thousand Shinji: When Shinji moves with Misato he takes over the cooking, cleaning... and all remaining household chores but laundry. He's tidier and more organized than his slovenly flatmates -his surrogate mother and his girlfriend- and he likes cleaning because he likes changing and altering his environment.
    Once he had been assigned everything but the laundry, a task that he didn’t particularly care for, he feigned displeasure at having so much to do, and grumbling he began to clean up the table. Inwardly he was overjoyed. This apartment would never be clean if Misato had to do the chores, and the act of cleaning was to change one’s environment, to act against decay and entropy, things that pleased Tzeentch. It was a small thing, but there were small things and big things in life, and the small ones came around more often.
• In The Power of Seven, when Harry ends up in a relationship with seven women at once (Ginny, Hermione, Luna, Fleur, Demezla Robbins, Susan Bones and Katie Bell) as part of a ritual to destroy the horcrux within him, Kate 'suggests' that Harry should just prepare to be this once the war's over, considering that he'll have seven women to satisfy and would probably prefer to take it easy at home rather than fight more Dark Wizards. At first, Harry privately isn't sure if he would be able to respect himself if he wasn't providing for his family, but Hermione assures him that he has enough money to do that if he wants and doesn't need to worry about it at the moment anyway. The epilogue confirms Harry has basically become this, even dropping out of Hogwarts halfway through his final year to be present for the birth of his and Fleur's daughter, cooking breakfast for the others, and basically taking it easy while supporting his seven wives in helping Wizarding Britain recover from Voldemort's second war.
• In Glory and Honor, the second installment of the Thundercracker's Glory series, Blitzwing ends up being pulled from active duty to care for his and Glory's adopted daughter, Swift, while Glory serves as Decepticon Air Commander. Admittedly Blitzwing spends much of his time at home playing video games rather than being completely domestic, though he does take good care of Swift in the process.
• Yin and Yang Series: Fujuju cooks and cleans while his wife is busy presiding over the order of time.

Films — Animated

• In Incredibles 2, Helen Parr goes back into superheroics, leaving Bob to say home to raise the kids. Despite initial struggles such as Dash making him learn New Math, he quickly proves himself to be a very competent homemaker. He cooks for the kids, gets better at helping with homework, and makes sure Violet's first date goes well. The only reason things go sideways is that while Bob's great at handling kids, he has no idea how to handle super babies. Jack-Jack developing 17+ superpowers at once really strings him out.
• In The Princess and the Frog, Tiana's father cooked for his family (and the neighborhood in general) and was very involved with raising his daughter. This was despite the fact he would do double or even triple shifts at work yet he never let his exhaustion get in the way of what mattered. His love and devotion to his family was later used as a sign of how successful his life was, rather than whether or not he achieved his dream of running a restaurant.
• In Turning Red, Mei's father is the primary cook for the family and does the grocery shopping while her mother primarily manages the family temple.

Films — Live-Action

• Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Mr. Cooper is one while his wife is the only breadwinner in the family. In the end, he gets a job but will remain in charge of household chores because his job, unlike Mrs. Cooper's, allows him the time for it.
• In Daddy Day Care, Eddie Murphy has to learn how to be a house husband, and eventually turns it into a successful business watching other people's kids. They initially encounter a bit of Double Standard, however, as people are reluctant to trust a daycare run solely by men.
• Norm Gunderson in Fargo takes care of the house while his wife Margie is off being police chief.
• Chris Rock's character in Grown Ups plays this role, or at least tries to. He gets less teasing from his buddies than from his own family.
• The aptly titled film Househusbands is all about this trope.
• In the 2015 film The Intern, Jules' husband became this after she founded her company because she'd not have time to raise their daughter and take care of their house. She comments to the titular intern that househusbands prefer to be called "stay-at-home-dads".
• Little Children, 2006: Brad Adamson (Patrick Wilson) is an apparently loving and responsible stay-at-home dad. Despite that, his son still displays greater fondness for his mom whenever she comes home.
• In the Stanley Kubrick adaptation of Lolita, Humbert complains of doing all the housework while painting Lolita's toenails, showing how she's got him wrapped around her little finger (or toe).
• In Meet the Fockers, it's revealed that Greg's father Bernie, a lawyer, has given up practicing law after Greg was born, choosing to raise him instead. Jack, being a staunch traditionalist, finds this disturbing. At the end, when Greg, Bernie, and Jack are in jail, Bernie offers to go talk to Judge Ira, presumably to use his familiarity with the judge through his former practice to get them all out. The judge does indeed order the cop to let them out, but not because of anything Bernie says. It turns out that Ira and his wife are regular clients of Bernie's wife, a sex therapist.
• Jack Butler, the eponymous house husband in Mr. Mom, starts out as a Fish out of Water, but ends up this at the end of the movie.
• After retiring, Frank Drebin takes on this persona in the third The Naked Gun movie. All jokes aside, he actually seems to be pretty good at it.
• Felix from The Odd Couple (1968) was this; it was part of the reason that his wife left him and he ended up rooming with Oscar.

Literature

• In The Babysitters Club book Kristy and Mr. Mom, Kristy's step-father becomes a stay-at-home dad after having a heart attack.
• This is the expected role for men in A Brother's Price because of the Gender Rarity Value^note One boy for every ten or so girls. A family with twenty-eight girls and four boys is considered exceptionally lucky, and they're expected to take to it well.
• The Courtship of Princess Leia: The matriarchy of Dathomiri society reverses the usual gender roles in this fashion, among others. Men at Singing Mountain are described as quietly serving their wives food and taking care of the children. Their wives are Witches with Force "magic" who are warriors and govern everything.
• The Doctor Who Eighth Doctor Adventures novel Father Time features the Doctor playing this role. He's always been the Team Chef, but in this one, he adopts a young girl and is seen serving her friends homemade lemonade. Aww. And he has time to have a successful career and save the day.
• The entire plot of Dorothy Canfield's The Home-Maker revolves around this trope. When the husband loses the use of his legs in an accident, the housewife is forced to enter the workplace, while he takes over the job of raising the children...and each is far happier and more skilled in their new role.
• Harry Dresser in The Jeremiah School is a stay-at-home dad who watches after both his son Donald and his nephew, the main character Peter Stone.
• This is the dynamic between Jill and Saul in Lilith Saintcrow's Jill Kismet series. Saul, however, is very much a bad-ass and often backs her up when hunting.
• Michael Hosea takes on this role in Redeeming Love, mainly because he’s been living alone and single well into his twenties, and his wife picked up absolutely no domestic skills during her thirteen-year career as a prostitute. The gender-stereotype connotations of this trope are averted, though; he’s a very typically manly farmer and she is extremely feminine.
• Spenser, the eponymous detective of Robert B. Parker's Spenser series of novels, is admittedly a better housekeeper, cook, and general domestic than his live-in girlfriend Susan Silverman, as she is the first to admit. But then, he is a Cultured Badass.
• At the end of Dave Barry's novel, Tricky Business, it's revealed in the Where Are They Now epilogue that Ted and Fey got married, and that Ted enjoyed (and was very good at) staying at home to take care of their three daughters, while Fey went to work for the Coast Guard.
• Warrior Cats: Fernsong. As soon as their kits were weaned, Ivypool went back to her warrior duties, while Fernsong moved into the nursery to take over the primary care of their kits - the only tom in the series known to do so.

Live-Action TV

• Between Season 3 and 4 of Arrow, Oliver Queen became Felicity Smoak's house husband. Although they aren't a married couple yet, they already lead the life of one.
• In The Big Bang Theory, one episode had Howard Wolowitz come to terms with the fact that his fianceé Bernadette wasn't good with children and didn't look forward to being a traditional mother. The two eventually come to an agreement (somewhat reluctantly on Howard's part) that should they decide to raise a family, Howard will be the one to stay at home with the kids.
• Andrew in the last season of Buffy the Vampire Slayer could be considered this. He's not in a relationship with anyone, though; he's more of a hostage/unwanted guest who cleans.
• A number of husbands on Call the Midwife have shades of this, being very involved with helping out during their wives' pregnancies and caring for the baby. One notable example is Mr. Warren, who is noted as standing out for staying with his wife during the deliveries of all twenty-two of their children. When she delivers the twenty-third while suffering a concussion, he stays with her the entire time, holding her still and keeping her calm.
• The Castle episode "Little Girl Lost" features a male artist who stays at home and takes care of his daughter while his wife works. The wife is so angry with him for "doing nothing" for ten years while she worked that she plotted with her sister to kidnap her own daughter, just so she could pay the ransom to herself and thus keep her husband from getting half of their assets when she divorced him. Another reason she's angry with him is because she doesn't think he's a particularly good house husband.
• An episode of CSI involved a husband who was a homemaker, taking care of the house and the infant son, while his successful lawyer wife made all the money. She is shown to treat him like dirt and not even bother hiding the fact that she is sleeping with her boss and that the child is likely his. The husband is revealed to be secretly going to a House of Pain to work out his frustration on a dominatrix. Then he accidentally suffocates her. When this is revealed, he finally musters the courage to tell his wife exactly what he thinks of her before being taken to prison. She's just mildly annoyed that her husband is going to jail. Not a very flattering portrayal of either the female provider or the male homemaker.
• Desperate Housewives: Some of the husbands become this at some points in the series, most prominently Tom Scavo whenever Lynette feels an urge to reinvigorate her High-Powered Career Woman vibe and Carlos Solis when he becomes blind (though he also takes up a masseur job).
• Rory Williams from Doctor Who. He's a nurse, who spent his life roving around the universe with his wife and her best friend, fighting aliens. Their daughter Melody inherits her mother's last name and he's mostly fine with taking Pond as a last name himself.
• El Chapulín Colorado was once called to help a househusband. Said househusband was a gynecologist who quit his job when his wife (whose job was never specified) started earning more than him. By a Contrived Coincidence, one of his former patients and her husband moved next door and, not knowing he lived there, the patient's husband went there to use a telephone to call him. Chapulin then pushed the house husband into resuming his job. His wife then became a housewife.
• Friends: Chandler in between switching jobs. Played with in that while his wife Monica is more masculine, she's also a chef and loves cleaning so is normally happy to pull house wife duties. Also despite his feminine habits, Chandler doesn't enjoy being home all the time and gets despondent at not working.
• In Full House, Jesse (played by John Stamos) and Joey (played by Dave Coulier) were effectively this, helping Jesse's widowed brother in law Danny (Bob Saget) raise his three girls.
• In Growing Pains, Doctor Seaver ran his psychiatric practice out of his home office so he could be a stay-at-home dad to his kids while his wife worked.
• Briefly, on Heroes, after Matt's law enforcement career hits an even more serious snag than usual, he becomes a surprisingly apt house husband, having breakfast ready when his wife gets up, cooking French cuisine, and apparently taking on most of the childcare responsibilities. Nonetheless, his wife worries he's not happy without a job. (Perhaps relatedly, his wife appears with Power Hair and a very sensible black pantsuit while he's being Mr. Mom in the kitchen.)
• As the name suggests, the Australian TV show House Husbands is about four blokes who have taken on the domestic role within their family units. The show is a comedy and situations are often played for laughs, but notably the actual househusband trope is usually subverted or double subverted.
• Interview with the Vampire (2022): Louis de Pointe du Lac is the "feminine" partner in the Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple dynamic that he has with his boyfriend Lestat de Lioncourt, so his role within their household is fairly similar to a traditional housewife. Louis is extremely devoted to their vampire daughter Claudia, with a doting parenting style that could be described as "motherly," and raising her is the greatest joy in his life. "A Vile Hunger for Your Hammering Heart" suggests that their townhouse becomes a Mess of Woe after Claudia abandons them because Louis is too depressed to do any housework ("...ignoring all other duties of the role Claudia once mocked me for — the unhappy housewife"). In "The Thing Lay Still", after Lestat kills a man with blood cancer, he orders Louis to tidy up ("Clean up the mess and come to coffin").
• On the Lois & Clark show, Clark is a gourmet cook who wants kids (and children seem to adore him in both his guises). Lois, conversely, is terrified of children and "can only make four things", one of which is pasta salad. (Fanon sometimes cranks this up to "burning water" levels). One wonders how he manages time.
• In Married... with Children, Jefferson identifies himself as a house husband, but avoid all kinds of work to live a life of leisure. Just because I'm a house husband doesn't mean I don't work (Not doing any work means you don't work.)
• In the short-lived early 90s sitcom The Mommies, one of the "mommies" was actually a father who was an example of this trope.
• Kevin in the BBC sitcom Motherland is a stay-at-home dad. While Kevin himself is somewhat dorky, very un-masculine and enjoys things like hanging out with elderly people, him being a stay-at-home dad in and of itself isn't played for laughs, and he seems to genuinely enjoy it.
• One episode of NCIS had Ziva talking to a female Marine's "domesticated house husband."
• In the 2010 version of Parenthood, Erika Christensen's character works full time as a lawyer while her husband stays at home and raises their child.
• Search: Da-jeong's husband Min-jae runs the household and raises their daughter while Da-jeong is at work or on a mission.
• On The Secret Life of the American Teenager, George becomes this after Anne's business career takes off. Anne discovers that she enjoys that more than staying at home and George discovers that he likes staying home more than he likes working in the furniture store. However, it is not treated as a strange thing.
• On Stargate Atlantis, Kanaan is basically this when Teyla goes back on active duty after the birth of their child. He doesn't suffer any stereotypes for it, though, probably because he's such a small character.
• Strong Medicine Dr. Andy Campbell's husband is the stay-at-home spouse and primary caretaker of their two girls. While they initially seem Happily Married, things become strained as time goes on, culminating in him slapping her during an argument and them divorcing—with her paying him alimony.
• Up All Night begins with a couple who just had a baby. The mother is a television producer working on a show (an Oprah Expy) while the father is a lawyer who is on temporary leave from work as a lawyer to take care of the child.
• The Double Standard involved in this trope was starkly illustrated on an episode of Wife Swap when a conservative, very religious, "traditional" couple (husband worked, wife stayed home to run the house and care for the kids) switched with a non-religious, more liberal, "unconventional" couple (husband stayed home to run the house and care for the kids, wife worked). The "traditional" housewife almost immediately started berating the house husband (who was equally competent as she in taking care of a home) for being a "lazy deadbeat" and kept insisting that he "get a job". Surely, if anyone would, she should have known that staying at home and taking care of the kids is a job and it's anything but lazy.
• You Me Her: Dave becomes one, staying home with his young daughters.

Music

• The narrator's girlfriend in Camper Van Beethoven's "Northern California Girls" lets him know he can be this. "I've got a good job, stay home and play the guitar" and raise the children.
• Jon Lajoie's "Stay At Home Dad".
• The song "Mr. Mom" by Lonestar plays the Double Standard to the hilt, featuring a man who loses his job and has to become a house husband. At first, he sees it as a chance to relax, but by the end of the first week of being a stay-at-home parent, he hates it and wants to find another job. The implications are that men (all men) are unsuited to domestic life and have to leave it to the women (although he does admit at the end that his wife is his hero because he now knows how she feels).
• Referenced in the Irish song "The town I loved so well".
  In the early morning the shirt factory horn
  Called women from Creggan, the Moor and the Bog
  While the men on the dole played a mother's role
  Fed the children and then walked the dog.

Newspaper Comics

• For Better or for Worse:
  • Anthony finally convinces Thérèse to have a baby by promising to become one of these so she doesn't have to give up her promising career in finance. He's shocked when she holds him to that instead of giving up her career to Stay in the Kitchen like a woman 'should'. We're supposed to side with Anthony on this one. Many don't.
  • Averted with Michael and Deanna: After Michael works at home as a writer, he’s supposedly one for Meredith and Robin while Deanna works as a pharmacy tech. However, he’s a Workaholic and rather neglectful, resulting in Deanna taking on the "second shift" of cleaning, cooking and child rearing. A conversation with Elizabeth confirms that Deanna has given up trying to get Michael to step up.
• After Fiona is born in Retail Scott cuts back to two shifts a week at his job so he can be the primary caregiver while Marla is the main breadwinner (with her being the store manager at Grumbel's). They both have a rather nuanced take on this scenario when they ask each other not to resent the roles they fill.
  Marla: Maybe it's more realistic if we both just promise to resent the erosion of the middle class instead of each other.
  Scott: Agreed.
• While Ted from Sally Forth has a job of his own, he often helps out with the jobs at home too. In one comic where his parents show up for the holidays, his dad demands that someone provide him with a sandwich. He then berates Ted for fixing it instead of leaving it for Sally (who already had her hands full with the actual dinner for everyone) and asks "What did you get married for?" Ted replies with "Oh, you know. Love, companionship. Having a second mother wasn't really a part of it."

Theatre

• In My Sister Eileen and its musical adaptation Wonderful Town, the Wreck is unemployed outside of the professional football season. While Helen works at the office, what he spends the day doing besides drinking is ironing in his shorts and doing almost anything around the house except washing, which he considers women's work. They're not actually married until the last act, however.

Video Games

• In Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus and Butterfly, Baileys plans to become a stay-at-home dad for his and Lua's future children to ease up his wife's workload.
• In Final Fantasy XI, pretty much all male Mithra are kept sheltered and confined to their home country as this, due to the race's low male birth rates.
• Stahl and Gaius from Fire Emblem: Awakening show traits of this. Stahl is a very sweet guy who takes care of everyone's needs and a skilled potion/medicine maker, while Gaius is quite skilled at needlework, jewelry making and especially cooking - his specialty being sweets of all kinds.
• The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword features potion-shop owner Luv and her husband Bertie. Whereas Luv is a shrewd businesswoman who is known for her brashness, meek Bertie is the one who constantly takes care of their child, only runs a side-business, and is even referred to by your Exposition Fairy as a "tireless househusband." Although Bertie seems like a Henpecked Husband, he seems to genuinely enjoy being the primary caretaker for their child ("Even when they keep you up all night, babies are still pretty cute"), and he and Luv make a great potion-making team.
• The protagonist of Persona 4, who can cook better than any of the girls (which says nothing), is good with kids, can clean pretty well, and has jobs to do at home.
• In the Rune Factory series:
  • In Rune Factory 4, Kiel is this if the player marries him. He's a fantastic cook who gives the player very good food for breakfast every morning, and he does lots of chores, which he mentions frequently in his dialogue. He's a doting father to his and the protagonist's eventual child, too, but all the bachelors are. Even before then, he's shown taking care of the chores for his much more masculine sister.
  • In Rune Factory 5, Reinhard is a platonic example to his lady, Beatrice. He handles all of the chores from her, from laundry to shopping to cooking, though his cooking is occasionally questionable. Should the player marry him, he'll also mention doing chores for them... and his dialogues will still mention looking out for Beatrice, suggesting he's now the primary domestic of two households.
• In The Sims, a male character with a family-based aspiration works very well as one of these. And as the Sims world is a largely genderless utopia of acceptance, no one finds it in any way strange. The Sims 3 subverts this trope with pre-made Dustin Langerek, who, though a stay at home dad, is less than focused on the housework.
• Some of the male potential spouses in Stardew Valley could be considered this, as your spouse will help out around the farm (feed the animals, water the crops, mend fences, cook breakfast), which often contrasts with their old life, and a few of them (such as Sam, who stops playing music) outright give up things they loved. However, these are strictly their own decisions and they only do it because they love you (unhappy spouses mope instead), and others, like Harvey, can still find time for their own lives. (In contrast, Abigail will finally have the chance to realize her dream of becoming a monster slayer, and may randomly give you monster drops from her latest adventure.)

Visual Novels

• Discussed in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Mahiru tells Nagito that she thinks he'd be good househusband material because of how good he is at cleaning. Nagito dismisses the idea because while he is indeed good at cleaning, he’s also a Lethal Chef.
• Rafael in Date Warp, although not romantically involved with anyone at the start of the game, lives with another character and does all the housework - during the course of the story, he's basically looking after all the game characters. And yes, he is a romance option for the protagonist.
• Fate/stay night:
  • Shirou , whose primary skills are housekeeping and cooking. Especially cooking, where the descriptions border on Food Porn.
  • Archer in other media is considered much the same outside his duties, since he constantly criticizes Shirou's cooking if given the chance. Might have to do with the fact that he's just a possible older Shirou. It's a common joke that they're the most capable domestic partners.
• The King of Devils (Forbesii) in SHUFFLE! cooks all of Nerine's food much to the surprise of all her friends. In the original Visual Novel he's even seen in an apron from time to time. People comment that his cooking is quite good.

Web Animation

• MoniRobo: Ryohei took care of the house chores after falling ill in his former job while his wife Ichiko was away working. However, he starts taking advantage of his role to cheat on her.

Western Animation

• Richard Watterson from The Amazing World of Gumball, though he doesn't even do much house work either. Also, if he ever gets a job, no matter how good he's doing, reality collapses on itself.
• Downplayed with Arthur's father David in Arthur. He and Arthur's mother Jane both work from home (he runs a catering business and Jane is an accountant), but Jane earns more of the family's income and David cooks most of the meals—and he's quite a good cook when he isn't experimenting. He also has some feminine traits, and is even prone to binging on ice cream when depressed.
• A variant on Batman Beyond: during an Egg Sitting plot with a robot baby, Max (the girl) and Nelson agree that Nelson will watch their child full-time if Max does his homework for him.
  Max: We opted for the traditional marriage: one breadwinner, one homemaker.
  Nelson: Beats algebra.
• On Daria both Jake and Helen work, but Helen is by far more successful and obsessed with it. Jake, meanwhile, seems to enjoy cooking strange dishes much more than business.
• Henry takes on this role in the Dennis the Menace episode, "Househusband Henry" while Alice goes out for a day. Dennis tries to help him out with the cooking, the laundry and housework, each time resulting in Henry calling for emergencies.
• Johnny's father Hugh Test in Johnny Test, who is literally a "house husband."
• The Loud House episode "Driving Ambition" has Lori imagine herself married to Bobby, who stays at home to care for their eleven children while she works as a professional golfer.
• Molly of Denali: Tooey's mother, Atsaq is a doctor, while his father, Kenji seems to stay home taking care of the dogs and doing groceries. However, Kenji did leave for a sled dog run in Anchorage in "Hus-keys."
• The Proud Family has Oscar stay at home as an inventor (an unsuccessful entrepreneur) while his wife, Trudy is a veterinarian. Although we do see Oscar at his enterprises every now and then.
• Ready Jet Go!: While Celery is always taking the kids to space, Carrot stays home and does things like cooking.
• On Rugrats Stu works at home inventing toys and apparently serves this role during most of the year, when his wife Didi is working as a high school teacher.
• Young Justice: Word of God says that, following the events of the finale, Roy Harper, aka Red Arrow, will take a leave of absence from the Justice League to focus on his daughter Lian.

Real Life

• John Lennon in the last five years of his life. Although as Lennon admitted in 1980, they had a staff of domestics to do the actual housework. Mostly, he took care of his son Sean and did a lot of cooking.
• When Curt Smith of Tears for Fears wasn't recording music or touring, he was a stay-at-home dad (and refers to himself as such) to his two daughters while his wife did the daily office grind as a marketing executive.
• Due to the economic downturn throughout the 2000s, this has been happening more frequently in families where the husband loses his job and can't find a new one (or, in some cases, realizes after a while that he enjoys and is good at domestic work, and doesn't want a new job). This can lead to relationship friction if one or both partners, or their friends, find this "inappropriate" behavior for a man. That situation wasn't so uncommon in during The Great Depression as women were paid less and often could at least find some underpaid work while their husbands were completely unemployed.
• A 2002 New York Times poll discovered that out of a thousand men randomly polled, nearly 80% of them said they would give up their jobs in a heartbeat to stay home and raise the kids if it was at all economically feasible for their families for them to do so.
• Many countries now offer transferable paternity/maternity leaves that would allow the father and the mother to split the time off. This allows the father time to stay home and take care of the baby instead of leaving it all to the mother.
• According to Cracked, it's not as good as it sounds. Although, those checking the comments will quickly find that their reasoning is up for debate.

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