Although many fathers provide back-up childcare – with more than half regularly dropping children at school and nursery - more than four in ten of them admitted that they have lied to their employer about their family commitments, and a similar number said they would be nervous about asking their employer to cut their hours.
However, despite the increasing involvement of fathers, there is an expectation among employers that mothers are ‘on call’, not fathers: 97 per cent of working mothers said that their child’s school or nursery would ring them rather than their partner.
The extent to which parents struggle to balance family and working life is revealed in the 2015 Modern Families Index, which will be launched in Westminster today.
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