While parents did not consider the preferred 4 weeks of reserved leave as sole carer time for fathers (instead prioritising concurrent leave at the birth of a baby) some parents did say it was important that fathers engage in sole parenting and childcare without assistance from their partners to build confidence and support an equal distribution of care work.

Yeah. It’s interesting, time together I think is extremely valuable, but also time being the sole parent is something I’ve got feedback from a couple of friends and notice myself … is that being the sole parent makes you realise absolutely everything that a baby does. And even our situation is a bit different because we’ve been mostly around together the whole time since he was born. And working from home, so you’ve got someone. But if you weren’t, I think that’s a really good experience, but particularly for a man to do some sole parenting. (Peter, middle income)