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Protests have erupted across the UK as families demand reform of the country's paternity leave policies. This video explores the psychological burden the current system places on new fathers and argues that it promotes an outdated view of parenting as primarily the mother's responsibility.

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00:00Well, I think that the psychological difference is enormous because, first of all, you don't know
00:04how the birth is going to go. You don't know when the birth is going to happen. You don't know
00:08how
00:08the child or the mother are going to fare after the birth. So you have, actually, you don't know
00:12what you're going to need. So in that sense, it's very difficult to put the onus on the new father
00:18to say, you tell me what you need and we'll, what, like you're going to suddenly leave your
00:22team high and dry. That's a very high psychological burden to clear. But in terms of the other
00:29psychological side of it is effectively what our system is saying, as it's a fundamentally
00:33different model from the rest of Europe and most OECD countries, is that parenting is the
00:40mother's job. And what they're saying, what the system effectively is communicating is that
00:44parenting is actually, it's your, the mother is the parent and the father is just there to
00:51support the mother if needed. It doesn't, it doesn't paint a picture of fathers being equal
00:58parents. And I think that's where the problem really lies.

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