Shifting Care Horizons: Care-sharing Arrangements, Motivations and Transitions

This chapter outlines the nature of the equal and primary care roles taken on by the fathers in the Sharing Care study, before exploring the circumstances in which these roles were taken on. The authors explore how, while for some fathers an extensive caregiving role had already fallen within their ideals and expectations (care horizons), for many others, it had represented a turning point brought about by circumstances. Moreover, for most of the fathers, equal or primary care responsibilities had not been taken on until after a period of several months (or more) of exclusive maternity leave for their partner. The taking on of care sharing by fathers, then, represented a substantial practical transformation of roles that previously were being discharged by the mother and, often involved a difficult transitional period.