Spending time with the kids - Meanings of family time for fathers

Based on intensive, qualitative interviews with 32 men, this study reports on the meanings of time for fathers from intact families with young children (under the age of 6). Men's experience of time provides some insight into why they have been slow to increase their time commitment to family activities, even when their wives enter the labor force. The fathers in this study believed in the priority of spending time with their children but, at the same time, lamented that making time for family was costly, fixed in amount, and largely beyond their control to change due to the demands of their paid work. In order for men to have a different experience of time, changes are required at three levels: individuals attitudes about time, control over time in the work place, and systemic realignments in parenting practices.