A poll released on Sunday ahead of Father’s Day tomorrow found that many fathers feel the nation’s businesses are not friendly enough for men in terms of child-rearing and most of them feel it is not easy being a father.
The survey was conducted by the Child Welfare League Foundation.
Asked to rate companies on a scale from zero to 100 for the levels of father-friendliness in several areas, respondents gave only an average of 47 points.
More than half of the respondents (59.5 percent) said they did not apply for paternity leave, while 32.5 percent had not applied for workplace measures in support of child-rearing, such as childcare leave.
Asked why they had not applied for such leave, 31.2 percent cited financial pressures and 21.6 percent said their companies did not have such a policy.
The poll found that 79 percent of respondents feel that fatherhood is not easy, and 70 percent are worried about the financial requirements of rearing children.
However, 93.3 percent said they had sacrificed time with their children for work, 91.3 percent said they did not do housework or help care for their childcare because of work and 88.4 percent said they found it hard to interact with their children because they are usually exhausted after work.
Asked what they do most often for their children, 76 percent said paying bills, doing leisure activities with them (68.3 percent), setting discipline rules (67.6 percent) and repairing household appliances (60 percent).
For these contributions, respondents gave themselves an average of 73.8 points for raising their children.
The poll was conducted between May 8 and June 8 among fathers in Taipei, New Taipei City, Taichung and Kaohsiung.
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