Fatherly

4 weeks ago | fatherly.com | Graham Techler

The nicknames we use for parents go in and out of fashion, age to age and era to era. At one time, men preferred “Sire.” Other times, “Father” was preferable. What we do know is that the most agreed-upon way to refer to dad these days is by calling him, well, ‘dad.’But why have we ditched ‘father’ for dad? The short answer is that things have gotten a little less formal. But the reason we’ve moved away from formality is that we’ve embraced what’s more linguistically natural for children and parents.

4 weeks ago | fatherly.com | Joshua A. Krisch

We know how women’s bodies adapt to motherhood. Hormonal shifts, neurological flips, and, of course, the obvious post-partum biological changes. But only recently have scientists begun to focus on how men’s bodies adapt to fatherhood. We now know that fathers experience changes in their hormone levels (especially testosterone and oxytocin); their brains respond differently to parent-related stimuli, and even their socioeconomic status tends to change once children arrive.

4 weeks ago | fatherly.com | Cameron LeBlanc

The time immediately after birth or adoption is a crucial one for parents and children, and because of that, most countries across the world provide some form of paid prenatal leave, parental leave, or federal paid family leave for their citizens. But not us. The United States stands alone in being the sole nation in the OECD that guarantees exactly zero federal paid parental leave to its citizens.

1 month ago | fatherly.com | Lizzy Francis

Paternity leave could change the world. A small mountain of peer-reviewed studies and white papers, and statistics backs the idea that having access to paid leave could do nothing short of that. And yet, everything seems to go sideways when the rubber meets the road. “Taking leave is not normative,” says Richard Petts, a sociologist who specializes in research on parental leave, when explaining the paternity leave statistics that show how few men actually take more than a week of paid leave.

1 month ago | fatherly.com | Matt Berical

In the 1970s and 80s, when Nordic countries first introduced shared parental leave, it was rare to see a father take advantage of it. Staying at home with kids was viewed as women’s work; men who did so were viewed as unmanly. In Sweden, those who did stay at home were called “velour dads,” a slang term for men who dressed in pajamas. A few decades later, Nordic dads, proudly pajama-clad, have become shining examples of involved fathers.