Excerpt
The role of the primary parent falls most often to moms, at least when looking at straight, two-parent households.
In the U.S., the cultural mindset around parenting has shifted toward a more equitable balance. Yet shifts in attitude don’t automatically lead to changes being put into action, which may be why so many moms still feel as though they carry the brunt of the weight when it comes to caregiving.
For fathers, spending more hands-on time with their babies leads to a shift in how they view parenting overall.
A study revealed that dads who take paternity leave want fewer children in the future.
The 2019 study was conducted in Spain, as researchers looked at varying reasons for the country’s low fertility rates.
From 1999 on, Spain granted new moms six weeks of maternity leave at full pay and two days of paid leave for dads. Families were also granted 10 additional weeks of leave that could be taken by either parent or split between moms and dads.
Unsurprisingly, very few fathers used that parental leave, which means that moms were the ones acting as primary caregivers in those tender and intense first months of a baby’s life.
In 2007, Spain introduced two weeks of paid paternity leave, giving fathers uninterrupted time with their newborns.
The study found that when dads took paternity leave, it led to delays in future pregnancies. Parents who took advantage of Spain’s new paternity leave policy took longer to have a second child.
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