https://news.osu.edu/another-way-longer-paternity-leaves-help-new-parents/
created by TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK on 23/02/2025 at 20:01 UTC
174 upvotes, 4 top-level comments (showing 4)
Comment by TAKEitTOrCIRCLEJERK at 23/02/2025 at 20:03 UTC
60 upvotes, 2 direct replies
this is not at all surprising, but it's nice to see that the research supports the gut feeling:
Overall, the results suggest that longer paternity leave may set in motion multiple changes that reduce the burden that new mothers bear in child care.
“A lot of research on the transition to parenthood suggests that nearly all couples fall into this trap of having unequal roles – even highly educated, two-earner couples like those in our study,” Schoppe-Sullivan said.
“This study suggests that a longer paternity leave may be a way out of the trap, that it may lead to a situation where fathers do have more of an equal role in parenting.”
doing more of a task makes you better at the task, and also makes other people confident in your ability to do the task. News!
Comment by AGoodFaceForRadio at 23/02/2025 at 21:59 UTC
35 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I find the choice of language to be interesting.
“Mothers … don’t go out of their way to encourage dads to get more involved,”
Generally, this is how we see the dynamic framed. It suggests that fathers need to be encouraged to get involved with their children. What would they do without encouragement?
But in this piece, I read a few statements that feel like this:
”mothers are less likely to try to prevent [fathers] from participating in child care,”
That wording suggests a very different dynamic. That change really jumped out at me.
Comment by HulkTales at 24/02/2025 at 00:19 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
A pity they don’t elaborate on what ‘longer paternity leave’ means in terms of number of weeks. I took 9 weeks off when my first baby was born, it definitely gave me good experience of just how full-on caring for a newborn is.
One of the best things I did when I went back to work was commit to doing the evening bath and bed routine every weekday. It gave my wife a much-needed break and gave me some quality time with bub. But more importantly, it gave me a chance to become the expert in something (bath time) which gave me a lot of confidence as a new dad.
Comment by hbomb30 at 24/02/2025 at 14:31 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The one thing I didnt see discussed which would have been useful is what defines "longer"? Is it two weeks? Two months?