During a recent White House summit on working family, President Obama said "A whole lot of father would love to be home for their new baby's first weeks in the world " (Gretchen, 2014). Of course Obama is a father in his family and he would want to be with his family for his newborn baby like other men do. But in general those men cannot take the leave because of the negative consequences that will come after. Some companies do not offer the leave and some that do offer the leave show the unspoken disapproval and they know exactly what punishments they will get after they come back to work from the leave. The consequences are most likely to effect on the earnings and other benefits from work. Although men who take paternity leave offer career penalties and social backlash, but there are many benefits from it that worth the risks.
The opponents of paternity leave for men claim that dads are considered providers first and nurturing second (Poniewozik, 2014), but the truth is men can be either of them or both. There are many evidences that show the love between the father and his child, many fathers today help their spouse taking care of their children and some take care of their infants by themselves without the women's help. Thus, this claim is not always true because it is just what people culturally believe to be from decades ago, but they ignore the fact that men are also a parent that can perform a parent duty as good as women can. If we look in the real world, it is necessary for men to have the choice to actually be presented as parents to their own babies just as women do (Poniewozik, 2014). However, it is not possible do take the time off, since fathers are the main source of income of the family and with an increase expense after a new member has arrived to a family, fathers need to work more and it is hardly for them to take time off for family without getting in trouble in the job.
