I ran into an old college friend at a barbecue the other day.  He has done well for himself in life: a great job in the financial sector, an amazing wife who works for a high end law firm, and three beautiful young children.  Naturally, our conversation gravitated toward fatherhood.  I asked him if he’d taken any time off for the birth of his kids.

“I took three months of parental leave for the first one,” he said.*

The proof just keeps coming.

Over at the Wall Street Journal last Friday, there was another article about the profound shift that men are undertaking as parents, and the struggles that go along with those changes. The studies and media attention are reflecting a new reality for working dads:  Ward Cleaver is dead and the hands-on, emotionally and physically present dad is becoming the new norm.

There was a fascinating story of a survey done at the University of Nebraska last fall which appeared in Forbes earlier this week.  The survey found that “75 percent of men consider being a parent very important, while only 48 percent had the same opinion about having a successful career.”  The author analyzing the data had valid questions about the number and wondered if they weren’t skewed by a growing movement of people frowning upon those who are overly preoccupied with financial success, or simply the human condition of responding to surveys as our “ideal” selves rather than our real selves.

One can argue a percentage point here and there, but these findings are none the less very significant for business.   Men clearly have different views of themselves as fathers than perhaps even only a decade ago.  However, my own research of a year ago showed that full time working dads place "breadwinner" as their top priority than full time working moms (51% to less than 1%.)  It also demonstrated that, unwittingly, the workplace still largely clings to the antiquated notion that men are willing and happy to sacrifice time with family for career.  Clearly, there is still a gap between what working dads want for themselves and their families and what is expected of them in the workplace.

I came across this study with the provocative title, Housework Makes Father’s Happy.  The summary of the study suggests that men who do more housework, child raising and have spouses who work similar hours are happier than those who don’t. 

I’m hoping to get my hands on the whole study, but I feel like the summary of it misses the point, somewhat.  Clearly, if a working dad is doing more housework and spending more time with his kids, it is precisely because he has more time to do those things than, say, a father who works 70 hours a week.  It's hard to say that housework in and of itself makes anyone more happy.  

Lest you think I’m the only one barking up this tree—Newsweek has a feature on Men/Work Life balance/Parental leave and the important trends that business needs to stay on top of to remain relevant.

 I urge you to check it out.