Many people laughed out loud watching Michael Keaton try to handle the kids and a vacuum cleaner in the 1983 hit movie "Mr. Mom," but for fathers across the country, the stay-at-home life is a reality.

Local 4's Steve Garagiola talked to some local families and found that arranging for dads to stay at home is an arrangement that can work.

Lunchtime in the O'Shea house is time for dad to get food on the table for 7-year old Mairen, 5-year-old Declan and 3-year-old Conall.

When their oldest son was born, Kevin O'Shea and his wife, Molly, a pediatrician made a tough choice. She went back to work and he left his law practice for a new career as a stay-at-home dad.

STAY-AT-HOME DADS The following are some resources for stay-at-home fathers: Slowlane.com Rebel Dad

"We decided because I was less happy … and she had just moved to a new practice, that it made sense for us to try," said O'Shea.

Kevin takes care of groceries, laundry, most of the cooking, all the mundane jobs and stress that go with running a household.

"I've got a pretty cool personality," O'Shea said.

His wife Molly said, "He's very even tempered. That's why he's the right choice to stay at home."

But Kevin does get rattled by questions like, "What do you do with all that free time?"

"Women never ask that. It's always men, because the women know exactly what you're doing when you're at home," said O'Shea.

When Molly comes home from the office, she and Kevin share the work. Kevin says that help and the respect that goes with it may be something most stay at home moms don't get.

O'Shea runs a support group and a fathering education program through Beaumont Hospital. He likes this newfound attention for stay-at-home dads, but says something about it just isn't right.

"It overlooks the fact that there are millions of women who have been doing that forever and they never get a pat on the back because it is a really demanding job," said O'Shea.