Objective This study uses a natural experiment in Canada to examine whether reserved paternity leave policy can increase fathers' involvement with their children. Background Although a growing body of research suggests that paternal leave‐taking is associated with increased father involvement, the causality of this relationship is unclear. Furthermore, leave‐taking may differently impact multiple dimensions of father involvement, including engagement (direct interaction with children), accessibility (time in children's presence), and responsibility (solo parenting time). Method Using two cross‐sectional waves of time diary data from the 2005 and 2010 Canadian General Social Survey, this study exploits the natural experiment of the reserved paternity leave policy introduced in the province of Quebec in 2006 compared to the shared parental leave benefits offered in the rest of Canada. Difference‐in‐differences methods are used to estimate the causal effect of the policy on multiple measures of father involvement. Results The reserved paternity leave policy led to a direct increase in fathers' responsibility time—2.2 additional hours of solo parenting time per week—but no direct effect on fathers' engagement or accessibility time. The findings also suggest that there may be indirect, contextual effects of the policy that have shifted the norms in Quebec regarding fathering. Conclusion This study concludes that reserved paternity leave can increase fathers' responsibility for children in ways that may benefit family well‐being and gender equality more broadly.

Objective We examine discrepancies between parents' and adolescents' reports of the quantity and the quality, or emotional valence, of time spent together. Background The question of how much time parents spend with children is vital to scholars and families. Although parents' reports of time with children are taken as standard and reliable, assessing different family actors' perspectives on time together is important to consider. Method Using the perspectives of 15–17‐year‐old adolescents and of parents with teenagers aged 15–17 years, we examine reports of parent–teen co‐presence (“in the room with”) and emotions during daily activities. Data are from American Time Use Survey time diaries (2003–2018) and the 2010, 2012, and 2013 Well‐Being Modules. Results There are considerable perceptual discrepancies in the amount of time reported as together. Parents report nearly an hour per day more than teenagers do—with the weekly gap equivalent to about an entire school day. Though the perceptual gap is sizeable, the emotional one is not: both generations experience reported time together as more meaningful, happier, and less stressful than time apart, partly due to the nature of activities and presence of other people. Social statuses, including parental employment and educational attainment, pattern perceptions of time together and well‐being during reported co‐presence. Conclusion Ultimately, generational position and social statuses shape perceptions of co‐presence in the form of “creating” versus “negating” classifications of togetherness.

In Western countries, men’s and women’s unpaid labor time has converged in recent decades, promising gender equality. Nevertheless, a stubborn gap remains. We extend our understanding of the “stalled revolution” by examining gender differences not only in hours but in everyday experiences linked to housework time. We argue that the felt pressures linked to household tasks are a key gendered quality associated with daily domestic work, particularly given the cultural weight and responsibility of housework for women. With time diaries from the 2015 Canadian General Social Survey (GSS), we examine housework time among different-sex partnered women and men aged 25–64 years (N = 6,850). We assess whether more housework time is associated with time pressures—feeling rushed, stressed, trapped, and unaccomplished in one’s daily goals—and whether this differs by gender. As expected, women do more housework than men; and more daily housework is generally associated with greater pressures. Results show a gender divergence in the relationship between hours and two forms of pressure. For women, housework time is associated with feeling stressed, whereas for men it is not. In contrast, housework time is associated with feeling unaccomplished more so for men than for women. Thus, in addition to gender differences in the amount of time spent on unpaid work, there is an experiential gender gap. The association of more housework time with feeling unaccomplished for men but not women portends a continued cultural mismatch between masculinity and domestic labor. Examining divergent qualities of domestic labor engagement extends knowledge of the stalled gender revolution.

Parents’ time with children has increased over the past several decades, according to many scholars. Yet, research predominantly focuses on childcare activities, overlooking the majority of time that parents spend with children. Using time diaries from the 1986–2015 Canadian General Social Survey, we examine trends in the quantity and distribution of parents’ childcare time and total co‐present time in the company of children, as well as the behavioral or compositional drivers of these trends. Co‐present time with children increased sharply since the mid‐1980s, by 1 hour per day for fathers and 1.5 hours for mothers. This rise was driven not only by childcare activities, but also parents’ time in housework and mothers’ time in leisure with children present. Decomposition analyses indicate that changes in parenting behavior primarily explain these increases in co‐present time. This study expands knowledge on intensive parenting through a more comprehensive understanding of parents’ daily lives with children.

How can workplaces ease the “time squeeze” faced by families struggling to balance paid work and family caregiving responsibilities? According to scholars, employers, and policymakers, workplace flexibility policies are a potential solution that may allow parents to spend more time with children. These policies may be particularly salient for fathers’ involvement in family life, as fathers do not feel they spend enough time with children, and as there is persistent gender inequality in the division of care work. Using the 2017-2018 American Time Use Survey Leave Module, this paper examines the association between flextime (control over start and end times) and flexplace (working from home) policies and different-sex partnered fathers’ time with children. Extending prior research, I distinguish between different types of father-child time and between solo parenting and time co-present with the mother. Flexibility policies are associated with increases in fathers’ family time with children – when the mother is also present. Fathers with frequent flextime access report more family time, yet those with less frequent access report less family time. Fathers who use flexplace report more family time, especially if they frequently work from home. Ultimately, this study complicates understanding of the implications of increasingly popular policies for fathers’ involvement, gender inequality, and family well-being.

Time together is central to family life, and the question of how much time parents spend with children is vital to scholars. Although parents’ reports of time with children are taken as standard and reliable, assessing different family actors’ perspectives on time together may challenge this notion. Using the American Time Use Survey (2003-2018), we provide a unique window into parent-adolescent time, via a novel examination of precise questions about co-presence and emotions during daily activities. Comparing parents’ and teenagers’ reports of the amount and emotional valence of time spent together, we reveal considerable perceptual gaps – reflecting “ambiguous” rather than “objective” togetherness. Mothers report 24 hours per week of co-presence (“in the room with”) compared to adolescents’ 15 hours – a gap greater than an entire school day; father-teenager discrepancies are comparable. Discrepancies vary by parents’ employment status, with larger discrepancies between stay-at-home parent and adolescent reports. Though the perceptual gap is sizeable, the emotional one is not: both generations experience reported time together as more meaningful, happier and less stressful than time apart, partly due to the nature of activities and presence of other people. Employed parents and the more educated receive more of a well-being boost from adolescent co-presence compared to their counterparts. Ultimately, generational position and social statuses shape perceptions of co-presence, in the form of “creating” versus “negating” classifications of togetherness.

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Parents’ time with children has increased over the past several decades, according to many scholars. Yet, research predominantly focuses on childcare activities, overlooking the majority of time parents spend with children. Using time diaries from the 1986-2015 Canadian General Social Survey, we examine trends in the quantity and distribution of parents’ childcare time and total contact time in the company of children, as well as the behavioral or compositional drivers of these trends. Contact time with children increased sharply since the mid-1980s, by 1 hour per day for fathers and 1.5 hours for mothers. This rise was driven not only by childcare activities but also parents’ time in housework and mothers’ time in leisure with children present. Decomposition analyses indicate that changes in parenting behavior primarily explain these increases in contact time. This study expands knowledge on intensive parenting through a more comprehensive understanding of parents’ daily lives with children.