When Dad Stay Home Too Summary

The article, “When Dad Stays Home Too: Paternity Leave, Gender, and Parenting” written by Erin M. Rehel, was published on September 26, 2013. I selected this article, because I wanted to understand how a father’s presence would affect a child’s development during the infancy stage. In addition, I wanted to be more informed about the benefits that are associated with paternity leave. At the Introduction of the article, Rehel wanted to determine if “men develop understandings and enactments of parenting that mirror those of women when they, too, exit the workforce temporarily in the immediate post-birth period.”(111)Before discussing specific details about her research study, the author claimed that “when the transition to parenthood is structured for fathers in …show more content…
Also, the leave-taking fathers were more engaged as they performed parenting tasks. In addition, they developed a sense of responsibility, and they took advantage of the time that they were given by improving any parenting skills that they needed to work on. Most importantly, it is essential to recognize that the leave-taking father played the role of a co-parent rather than the role of a “helper”. Based on the results of Rehel’s study, there are several benefits or advantages that are associated with paternity leave. For instance, it allows a father to play an active role in his child’s life. Second, by staying at home, the father can nurse the child and lessen the mother’s stress and workload. Also, paternity leave gives a family the chance to grow together, and it promotes family bonding time. In addition, Rehel even found fathers that were extremely elated to be around their newborns, and they were excited to become a