TIME TO STOP BEING THE BOSS AT HOME

THIS afternoon, up and down the country, 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 lobbying the Government to make this more egalitarian.

At the moment, apart from two weeks’ statutory paternity leave, the only way for working fathers to be fully involved in the early months of their baby’s life is if their partner hands over some of her 50-week maternity leave allowance.

But take-up is low, as most families either are not eligible or can’t afford for the father to go on extended leave.

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.