Millennial dads are redefining fatherhood, but there’s still work to do

The differences in parenting between millennials and previous generations are visible to the naked eye. With fathers, the biggest discrepancy overall is the level of involvement in raising children. But don't call them "mums", they simply fulfill their role

Gone are the days of women shouldering all the heavy lifting in raising children. From weaning to leisure time, homework to overall education, responsibilities are more equally divided nowadays between two people-mom and dad, or whoever you choose to have in your family unit.

The same change is confirmed by an in-depth study presented by the Pew Research Center. According to the results, millennial dads spend three times more hours in child-raising compared to the parents of other generations. Speaking about their involvement, 57% of the millennial fathers consider parenthood an important part of their identity-a figure almost identical to the figure for mothers, which stood at 58%.

The study

This is indicative of how much family dynamics have changed in this current era. For instance, in 1982, 43% of the parents admitted they had never changed a diaper, a figure that has since dropped drastically to 3%. Parents of this generation also spend 30 more minutes each day on household chores compared to their parents.

Attitudes regarding parental leave also have changed. A study in Iceland found that fathers who took at least two weeks of paternity leave were more involved in their children’s lives long-term. This is corroborated by 83% of millennial dads who say they would prefer to work for companies offering good parental leave benefits.

The modern father

Millennial dads are rewriting what it means to be a good father by being more involved, active parents, but much work is yet to be done.

With millennial dads changing the face of what it means to be a father today, we may just be at the tip of the iceberg in order for all parents to have involvement in an equal manner outside of the US, in and outside of the home.

For example, there is still that infamous class WhatsApp group, which contains how many dads in that chaotic chat?