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Knew you guys would like this....Men want fewer kids after paternity leave.
Posted by cfuter
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Knew you guys would like this....Men want fewer kids after paternity leave. May 09, 2019 | Registered: 7 years ago Posts: 651 |
https://qz.com/work/1614893/after-men-in-spain-got-paternity-leave-they-wanted-fewer-kids/amp/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=qz-organic&fbclid=IwAR0Oz_ix5sPSYad_zLXtJil2lnINTi0cnRrFvGiS2pSJ7b_KR8J-Nlnocdc&__twitter_impression=true
In March 2007, Spain introduced a national policy granting most new fathers two weeks of fully paid paternity leave. The policy proved exceptionally popular, with 55% of men eligible in the first year opting to take the paid time. The amount of leave covered by the program was doubled in 2017 and expanded to five weeks in 2018, with additional increases expected between now and 2021.
Economists studying the effects of the original 2007 policy examined what happened to families that had children just before and just after the program began, and found differences in the outcomes. While the early cohort of men who were eligible for paternity leave were just as likely to stay in the workforce as the men who weren’t eligible, they remained more engaged with childcare after their return to work, and their partners were more likely to stay in the workforce as well. In that sense, the program seems to have done what policy makers would have hoped.
Unexpectedly, though, the researchers also found that families who were eligible for the paternity leave were less likely to have kids in the future. In a study published in the Journal of Public Economics (paywall), economists Lídia Farré of the University of Barcelona and Libertad González of University of Pompeu Fabra estimate that two years on, parents who had been eligible for the newly introduced program were 7% to 15% less likely to have another kid than parents who just missed the eligibility cutoff. While the difference dissipated further into the future, even after six years, parents who had been eligible for the leave were still less likely to have a child again.
The researchers suggest an intriguing reason why.
After paternity leave was instituted, surveys of Spanish men ages 21 to 40 showed they desired fewer children than before. Farré and González think that spending more time with their children—or the prospect of having to do so—may have made men more acutely aware of the effort and costs associated with childrearing, and, as the researchers put it, “shifted their preferences from child quantity to quality.”
At the same time, women started showing preferences for slightly larger families—perhaps a sign that having more children seemed more desirable with a slightly more equitable balance of labor at home.
As the authors point out, it’s impossible to draw sweeping conclusions from this observation of a single data point in a single country. Correlation isn’t causation, and it’s possible that other factors weighed more heavily than paternity leave on men’s family preferences. (The global financial crisis, for example, hit Spain in full force about a year after the leave policy was introduced.)
“There are a couple of reasons that I’d be hesitant to believe that these same impacts would apply elsewhere,” said David Evans, an economist at the Center for Global Development. “In Spain, almost no men were taking paternity leave before the policy, and that jumped to more than half of men after the reform. At the same time, men in Spain wanted more children than women did. That wasn’t the case in a number of other European countries.”
In March 2007, Spain introduced a national policy granting most new fathers two weeks of fully paid paternity leave. The policy proved exceptionally popular, with 55% of men eligible in the first year opting to take the paid time. The amount of leave covered by the program was doubled in 2017 and expanded to five weeks in 2018, with additional increases expected between now and 2021.
Economists studying the effects of the original 2007 policy examined what happened to families that had children just before and just after the program began, and found differences in the outcomes. While the early cohort of men who were eligible for paternity leave were just as likely to stay in the workforce as the men who weren’t eligible, they remained more engaged with childcare after their return to work, and their partners were more likely to stay in the workforce as well. In that sense, the program seems to have done what policy makers would have hoped.
Unexpectedly, though, the researchers also found that families who were eligible for the paternity leave were less likely to have kids in the future. In a study published in the Journal of Public Economics (paywall), economists Lídia Farré of the University of Barcelona and Libertad González of University of Pompeu Fabra estimate that two years on, parents who had been eligible for the newly introduced program were 7% to 15% less likely to have another kid than parents who just missed the eligibility cutoff. While the difference dissipated further into the future, even after six years, parents who had been eligible for the leave were still less likely to have a child again.
The researchers suggest an intriguing reason why.
After paternity leave was instituted, surveys of Spanish men ages 21 to 40 showed they desired fewer children than before. Farré and González think that spending more time with their children—or the prospect of having to do so—may have made men more acutely aware of the effort and costs associated with childrearing, and, as the researchers put it, “shifted their preferences from child quantity to quality.”
At the same time, women started showing preferences for slightly larger families—perhaps a sign that having more children seemed more desirable with a slightly more equitable balance of labor at home.
As the authors point out, it’s impossible to draw sweeping conclusions from this observation of a single data point in a single country. Correlation isn’t causation, and it’s possible that other factors weighed more heavily than paternity leave on men’s family preferences. (The global financial crisis, for example, hit Spain in full force about a year after the leave policy was introduced.)
“There are a couple of reasons that I’d be hesitant to believe that these same impacts would apply elsewhere,” said David Evans, an economist at the Center for Global Development. “In Spain, almost no men were taking paternity leave before the policy, and that jumped to more than half of men after the reform. At the same time, men in Spain wanted more children than women did. That wasn’t the case in a number of other European countries.”
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Re: Knew you guys would like this....Men want fewer kids after paternity leave. May 09, 2019 | Registered: 10 years ago Posts: 2,363 |
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Re: Knew you guys would like this....Men want fewer kids after paternity leave. May 09, 2019 | Registered: 18 years ago Posts: 9,964 |
So men who have to spend what is essentially a two-week paid vacation taking care of their own brats are less likely to do it again? WOW who would've thought!
Funny how the men who scream the loudest about wanting a dozen kids usually don't do a goddamn thing in regard to actually interacting with those kids. They just want to prove how fertile and heterosexual they are, but they aren't interested in actually raising those kids they made. Shit, if they remember the kid's name, it probably warrants a call to the pope to report a miracle. You make a guy deal with his own goddamn kids for a while and he'll shut the fuck up really quick about trying for number two, three, four, etc.
But you know what? If making guys take paternity leave discourages them from making more brats, I'll gladly let 'em have a couple weeks off! I mean it won't stop the inevitable oopsing when Moo feels justified in unilaterally deciding on having another one, but I wonder how many would be begging to not have to take paternity leave so they don't have to listen to a screaming loaf and a screaming Moo-wife for half a month. Because I know for a LOT of guys, given the choice of sleeping at work or going home to Moo-Wife and Bratleigh, a lot would sleep at work.
Funny how the men who scream the loudest about wanting a dozen kids usually don't do a goddamn thing in regard to actually interacting with those kids. They just want to prove how fertile and heterosexual they are, but they aren't interested in actually raising those kids they made. Shit, if they remember the kid's name, it probably warrants a call to the pope to report a miracle. You make a guy deal with his own goddamn kids for a while and he'll shut the fuck up really quick about trying for number two, three, four, etc.
But you know what? If making guys take paternity leave discourages them from making more brats, I'll gladly let 'em have a couple weeks off! I mean it won't stop the inevitable oopsing when Moo feels justified in unilaterally deciding on having another one, but I wonder how many would be begging to not have to take paternity leave so they don't have to listen to a screaming loaf and a screaming Moo-wife for half a month. Because I know for a LOT of guys, given the choice of sleeping at work or going home to Moo-Wife and Bratleigh, a lot would sleep at work.
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Re: Knew you guys would like this....Men want fewer kids after paternity leave. May 10, 2019 | Registered: 19 years ago Posts: 9,196 |
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Funny how the men who scream the loudest about wanting a dozen kids usually don't do a goddamn thing in regard to actually interacting with those kids.
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You make a guy deal with his own goddamn kids for a while and he'll shut the fuck up really quick about trying for number two, three, four, etc.
QFT.
This whole topic is hilarious! All the bleating about TMJITW......until somebody actually has to do that job.
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Re: Knew you guys would like this....Men want fewer kids after paternity leave. May 10, 2019 | Registered: 18 years ago Posts: 9,964 |
The only downside to that attitude is men who play a role in their kids' lives also act like they're fucking saints for doing it because between Moos and Duhs, men aren't the ones who are expected to do the shit work. Moos do it too, for sure, but with guys, it's like the lazy fucks who expect to be praised because they washed a spoon or ran the vacuum cleaner or put their own underwear away (a.k.a. "women's" work). Like, "Ohhh what a GOOD BOY! Who's a good boy? Who did good?" I know not all guys are like this, but a lot of them are.
Don't fucking praise someone for shit they're expected to do. I'll tell him what a good boy he is if his kid turns out to be a bearable human being due to actual efforts on his part, but until then, I'm not going to act like he's my lord and savior because he wiped his kid's butt one time and managed to put the diaper in the trash rather than the dishwasher.
Don't fucking praise someone for shit they're expected to do. I'll tell him what a good boy he is if his kid turns out to be a bearable human being due to actual efforts on his part, but until then, I'm not going to act like he's my lord and savior because he wiped his kid's butt one time and managed to put the diaper in the trash rather than the dishwasher.
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Re: Knew you guys would like this....Men want fewer kids after paternity leave. May 26, 2019 | Registered: 16 years ago Posts: 3,454 |
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Cambion
So men who have to spend what is essentially a two-week paid vacation taking care of their own brats are less likely to do it again? WOW who would've thought!
Funny how the men who scream the loudest about wanting a dozen kids usually don't do a goddamn thing in regard to actually interacting with those kids. They just want to prove how fertile and heterosexual they are, but they aren't interested in actually raising those kids they made. Shit, if they remember the kid's name, it probably warrants a call to the pope to report a miracle. You make a guy deal with his own goddamn kids for a while and he'll shut the fuck up really quick about trying for number two, three, four, etc.
But you know what? If making guys take paternity leave discourages them from making more brats, I'll gladly let 'em have a couple weeks off! I mean it won't stop the inevitable oopsing when Moo feels justified in unilaterally deciding on having another one, but I wonder how many would be begging to not have to take paternity leave so they don't have to listen to a screaming loaf and a screaming Moo-wife for half a month. Because I know for a LOT of guys, given the choice of sleeping at work or going home to Moo-Wife and Bratleigh, a lot would sleep at work.
Cambion, you are spot on. If men had to contribute more to child raising, their desire to breed would diminish significantly. I have seen it in real life. For example, a wanna duh wants 3 kids. Situation turns in such a way that after 1 kid, he has to be at home with it while baby momma is the bread winner. It turns out, to no surprise to me, that wanna duh is content with just one kid at that point.
As far as paternity leave goes, if men do more to care for kids, just like the article says, women might want more, so who knows, more “accidents” might be taking place.
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