No More Guilt And Regret: The Dads Marching For The Time They Never Got With Their Newborns |
No More Guilt And Regret: The Dads Marching For The Time They Never Got With Their Newborns
"Fathers are expected to be present, supportive and equal parents, yet the system still treats us like optional extras."
Parents editor at HuffPost UK
Hundreds of pram-pushing fathers and their partners are set to take to the streets of London, Leeds, Manchester and Nottingham to bang the drum for better paternity leave.
Currently, many UK dads are entitled to just two weeks off, as standard, after the birth of their child – but plenty of parents agree this isn’t good enough.
Ron Mutira, a father-of-two from Leeds, is attending the Push For Paternity march on Saturday 2 May because “paternity leave is a necessity, not a luxury”.
His wife underwent an emergency caesarean section last month and was told to take six weeks of bed rest to recover.
“But because I’d been at my job for less than a year, I wasn’t entitled to paid leave. I could only afford 10 unpaid days before the cost-of-living crisis forced me back to work,” he told HuffPost UK.
Mutira said he had to leave his wife (“who was physically unable to lift more than the weight of her baby”) to care for their newborn and three-year-old, alone.
“I’m marching because the ‘recovery’ time for a mother shouldn’t be spent in pain and........