News
Are you on the "Daddy Track"?
Stay at home dads have been in the news again this month after Harriet Harman, the Minister for Women, said it should be the norm for men and women to share work and childcare equally. This was too much for many columnists, such as Tom Sykes, writing in the Daily Mail or Carol Saler in the Times but it is simply what many families - and many stay at home dads - have been doing for years.
The number of full-time house-husbands may not be increasing, but as we have been saying for some time, more and more dads are shifting their working patterns, working from home or going part-time to have more hands-on time with their children.
The Telegraph this month featured those City high-flyers taking the "daddy track", working from home or working longer hours four days a week to spend more time with their kids. But it's not just professionals. The TUC reported that 1 dad in 10 now spends more time at home, and that 750,000 men have successfully asked their employer for the right to flexible working.
All this adds up to a significant shift in attitudes to parenting in the UK, even if we've a long way to go to catch up with Sweden, where it is common for dads to take 6 months off work.
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