You may have noticed a raft of recent media stories making you pause for thought about whether the modern day dad shift is starting to take the next step.
Here at Daddilife, we think things are really starting to heat up. You only have to search Google for “Paternity Leave” or “Dads at Work” news to notice there is more content to scroll through then ever. You might say these are hot topics right now so of course there will be a large footprint on those search terms. But even lesser spoken about issues concerning dads, like mental health and changing nappies, are actually helping people talk about these even more.
2019 so far
Amazingly we are half way through 2019 and there has been some fantastic progression within the millennial dad community in the UK. We have seen more dads starting their own blogs, building their online footprint and taking advantage of forums and platforms to share ideas on fatherhood. Up until now this is something we have only really seen with the mum community especially at this speed of growth.
DaddiLife are proud to be part of this movement and have recently been asked to share our opinions on many topics ranging from Shared Parental Leave, Changing nappies and Child development. In the past week alone we have been invited to speak on both BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester and LBC.
Changing Nappies
Lord Alan Sugar appeared on Piers Morgan’s Life Stories TV show where he was quoted as saying “I think I only ever changed 2-3 nappies in my life” and “I wasn’t present at the birth of my eldest son as I was playing Tennis.”
BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester asked us to comment on this. DaddiLife’s Marc Shelkin mentioned that dads of Lord Sugar’s generation weren’t very hands on in day-to-day activities with their children. Changing nappies was seen as a nasty job and as the NHS wasn’t around back then, Dads were never really made to feel welcome at hospitals when their partners were giving birth.
That was just ‘normal’ in those days. Many millennial dads however opt to co-parent and share the load of daily activities, which include changing nappies. Its part and parcel of every day life bringing up children and most dads don’t think twice about it.
List to the full interview below.
Paternity Leave in 2019
Another hot topic in the press this week was Theresa May’s plans to extend Paternity leave for dads as part of her legacy. With Theresa May recently stepping down from her role as Prime Minister, she is focusing her time on a few new initiatives with one of them being an improvement on the current paternity leave structure that many use alongside the SPL guidelines that the Liberal Democrats introduced in 2015.
LBC wanted to get our thoughts on current SPL take up and if we thought extended paternity leave was a good idea for businesses. Again Daddilife’s Marc Shelkin discussed the current take up of around 9% across the country, which is mainly being led by innovative schemes large organisations have put in place.
We are yet to explore the impact on small businesses and why people aren’t using it.
What we do know is the appetite for longer paternity leave is strong and if dads didn’t feel it would affect their careers long term by taking it the take up would no doubt be higher. There are still a number of tensions dads are facing in the workplace especially around a better work/ life balance.
List to the full interview below.
Lastly, DaddiLife founder Han-Son Lee was asked to appear on BBC Radio Hereford & Worcester to cap a hat trick of appearances for us on radio this week. He was asked to share his thoughts on phasing out the naughty step from nursery.
This leaves us asking, what does the rest of 2019 hold for the millennial dad and equality in both the workplace and at home? We know there is a long way to go but the future looks bright for dads.
