"I think it's easier to go to work every day than staying home."

On weekday mornings, Jose Mendez is up at 4 a.m. to make breakfast, send his wife off to work and ready his five kids for their three schools. A stay-at-home dad since 2006, his marathon days of chauffeuring, cooking, cleaning, helping with homework and refereeing squabbles often last until midnight.

"I think it's easier to go to work every day than staying home," admits the Deltona dad, who's raising three children and two stepchildren, ages 6 to 14. "Sometimes I do resent it. I am the man, after all."

Men like Mendez have doubled in number in the past decade, but only 3.4 percent of all married fathers with children younger than 18 are stay-at-home dads.

The trend is still unusual enough that society isn't always sure what to make of men who don't work. Some men confess to isolation, misguided potshots by other dads and even a loss of self-esteem.

"A lot of times, I'd like to be the one out in the world, working," Mendez says. "But it's a financial decision."

Read more at the Orlando Sentinel.