Men, these days, are embracing fatherhood with the round-the clock involvement their partners have always dreamed of--handling night feedings, packing lunches and bandaging knees. But unlike women, many find they’re negotiating their new roles with little support or information. "Men in my generation (aged 25-40) have a fear of becoming dads because we have no role models," says Jan Smith, a writer. They often find themselves excluded from mothers’ support networks, and are eyed warily (警觉地)on the playground.
The challenge is particularly evident in the work-place. There, men are still expected to be breadwinners climbing the corporate ladder; traditionally-minded bosses are often unsympathetic to family needs. In Denmark most new fathers only take two weeks of paternity leave(父亲的陪产假) even though they are allowed 34 days. As much as if not more so than women, fathers struggle to be taken seriously when they request flexible arrangements.
Though Wilfried-Fritz Maring, 54, a data-bank and Internet specialist with German firm FIZ Karlsruhe, feels that the time he spends with his daughter outweighs any disadvantages, he admits, "With my decision to work from home I dismissed any opportunity for promotion."
Mind-sets(思维定式)are changing gradually. When Maring had a daughter, the company equipped him with a home office and allowed him to choose a job that could be performed from there. Danish telecom company TDC initiated an internal campaign last year to encourage dads to take paternity leave: 97 percent now do. "When an employee goes on paternity leave and is with his kids, he gets a new kind of training: in how to keep cool under stress," says spokesperson Christine Elberg Holm. For a new generation of dads, kids may come before the company--but it’s a shift that benefits both. When Mating was on paternity leave, he was allowed by his company to work （）