TIME TO STOP BEING THE BOSS AT HOME

ON so many afternoons during term time, fathers will wait to collect their children at the school gate, and it’s easy to predict the kind of comments many will receive.

‘Where’s Mum today?’ will get trotted out, along with the suggestion that Dad’s only there because his wife told him to go.

In fact, research has shown that more than half of fathers have been made to feel that they are somehow lacking in their abilities as parents.

This is a narrative that desperately needs to change, for the fathers it denigrates and also because it’s the biggest stumbling block facing women today.

Too many are still seeing their professional potential blocked by a glass ceiling culturally reinforced by the idea that their main role is to be the ‘CEO’ of the home.

At the heart of the issue is our unbalanced parental leave system.

Organisations such as The Fatherhood Institute are aiming to make this more egalitarian.

At the moment, fathers are entitled to two weeks’ statutory paternity leave. From November, both new mothers and fathers will be granted two weeks extra parental leave on top of the current leave entitlements. However, paternity leave pales in comparison to the 26 weeks that mothers are entitled to.

Mothers don’t have a magical ability: all it’s really down to is that they were the one caring for their baby in its first months.

If fathers had similar time ring-fenced for them, they’d become equally attuned to their child’s needs.