From the outside, Anand Iyer seemed to have it all. A wife, an adorable two-year-old daughter, and a six-figure salary job with a leading tech company in San Francisco that he loved. But apparently the dream combination is not so perfect. The 36-year-old quit his job to be a house-husband - and now he couldn't be happier. Packed it in: Anand Iyer worked for fashion site Threadflip, but ditched his job to spent time at home . Speaking to Yahoo Parenting, he said: 'I started to ask myself, "What am I working so hard for? Why are we trying to make our lives so great but aren't investing in time with our child?"' He 'felt terrible' about not seeing his little girl Ava, Iyer said, and struggled to flit between the roles of employee and dad. After working at Microsoft, he moved over to Threadflip to be their chief product officer. Though he had pushed himself to get there, he realized it might not be the goal he was aiming for. 'I wasn’t spending any time with her in the evening,' Iyer told the site. The playground, he told Yahoo, was the worst. 'I would look down at my phone a lot because I didn’t know how to socialize there. 'I didn’t know what to say. But I’m slowly starting to make my way into that circle. It’s about being there over and over again, I think. And now that I’ve done this a few times, and I’m recognizing people in the neighborhood, it’s gotten better.' So in January, he handed in his notice. Alongside Iyer's savings, his wife Shreya, 34, is supporting the family with her job as a recruitment manager at data analytics firm Splunk. He concedes that it feels uneasy at times: 'I've had occasional sleepless nights over our finances. 'But the reality is that I’m fortunate that I’ve been working nonstop for a long time so it wasn’t as difficult a transition for us financially as it could have been.' Iyer is part of a growing faction of men who are subverting the traditional parental set-up to spend more time with their children. According to a recent study by Pew Research, 46 per cent of fathers are dissatisfied with the amount of time they spend with their children. Though he may consider working part-time when Ava starts school, he has vowed to make sure she remains his focus. 'Seeing Ava grow from little girl to a big girl is so rewarding and I can’t say that I would have seen it this way if I’d been working all day, every day,' he told Yahoo. 'From that lens, if we can live like this a while, it’ll be totally worth it. It already think it is.'
Anand Iyer, 36, was earning six figures at Threadflip in San Francisco.
He realized he didn't get much time to see his daughter, 2, Ava.
He felt awkward at the playground and Ava was asleep when he got home.
Quit his job to be house-husband, says it's 'the best investment'
His wife Shreya, 34, now supports the family as a recruitment manager.