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Dear companies: Maybe it's time to realize that your dad employees are parents too.

Diaper changes, toddler tantrums, and a lack of sleep make parenting challenging. ​Parents​ who work outside the home​ have ​added issues to contend with.

A rigid schedule at the office usually doesn't jibe when raising children is involved. 

Women in the workplace have challenges that many men don't have to deal with. For example, women sometimes are paid less for the same job, and at times they can be at higher risk of being passed up for promotions by their male colleagues.


But when it comes to parental leave and flexible schedules, dads run into problems. And these kinds of situations hurt all parents.

Men are "supposed" to be at work, not at home ... says the boring stereotype.

A recent Australian study revealed that men are twice as likely to be denied flex hours at the workplace than their female counterparts. 

Ironically, this is because of the sexism that women face in the workplace. Essentially, women are presumed to be the primary caregivers, so in places with poor workplace cultures, managers presume that men don't need time off and women do. 

Being a working dad isn't always fun and games. Image from the Daddy Doin' Work Instagram feed.

Apparently, in the minds of some poor misguided souls, "It's a mom's job to stay at home with the kids." 

Although there are people who actually believe that to be true, society isn't playing along. For example, in 2013, almost two-thirds of mothers with children under the age of 6 were in the labor force. 

Not to mention, the current population of stay-at-home dads in the U.S. has doubled since 1989 to approximately 2 million men

Parenthood has evolved, so why hasn't the workplace?

What it means to be parent in today's world is completely different from in the past.  Moms are crushing it in the corporate workforce and more dads are opting to spend more time at home with their kids. 

The days of a man's worth as a father being directly correlated to how big his paycheck is are over. Today's dads are way more involved than ever before. But what happens when a dad asks his employer for some leeway with his schedule in order to be there for his children?

According to the Australian study, 60% of men surveyed desired flexible hours at the workplace, but in many cases, they were shot down by their employers. 

One male respondent said his manager told him that flexible hours are "traditionally only something we make work for women." 

GIF from "Oblivion."

UNSURPRISING FACT: Lots of dads wish they could spend more time with their family.

Work-family balance is something that many mothers who work outside the home struggle with, but it's not just a female issue. Many dads experience significant challenges juggling work and home life. 

46% of dads believe they are not spending enough time with their kids, while only half as many mothers (23%) feel the same way. 

Dad shakin' some time loose to play with his kid. GIF from "Modern Family."

Even when companies have flexible working hours in place, some men are reluctant to take advantage of the perks due to fear of backlash. 

A dad named Jon agreed to share his thoughts with Upworthy.

"My employer has policies in place where I can work whenever I want to. The problem is I still get passed up on projects and promotions because I have to leave work at a certain time to pick up my son from daycare. I consistently outperform my colleagues, but I'm not taken seriously due to needing some flexibility in my schedule. In other words, the policies are good, but the culture still needs work."

Jon went on to mention that in many cases, male and female colleagues will ask why his son's mom can't pick him up instead. 

His answer always remains the same: He does it because he wants to be there for his kid.

As long as he's taking care of his workplace responsibilities, who in their right mind would have a problem with that?

Do you know who may save the day for parents everywhere? Millennials.

The line between working and parenting is often blurred. Image from the Daddy Doin' Work Instagram feed.

That's right. The heroes of this story are the best and brightest millennials who refuse to work for employers that won't offer flexible schedules and benefits. The cool part is that it's not just millennial women who feel this way — millennial dads are in on it too.

"When I was applying for jobs, the first thing I asked my prospective employers about was flexible scheduling," said William, a 28-year-old dad to 18-month-old twins. "Being an integral part of my kids' lives is important to me, and I will settle for nothing less."

He's not alone. 80% of millennials said their main reason for staying at a job is pay and benefits, including flexibility. 

Some smart companies are waking up to this fact.

Real talk — sometimes we all have to take work home with us. It happens. But having the ability to bond with our children is important too.

Netflix offers one year of paid paternity leave for its employees, and other companies like Facebook and Johnson & Johnson have similarly awesome policies. Kudos to them for understanding that the days of parents being locked up in their offices for 12-14 hours a day isn't a good look for anyone involved. 

So, the next time you see a dad leaving work early to attend his daughter's dance recital, smile and realize that we're making progress. 

Cheers to the dads who put family first! GIF from "Seinfeld."

A pitbull stares at the window, looking for the mailman.


Dogs are naturally driven by a sense of purpose and a need for belonging, which are all part of their instinctual pack behavior. When a dog has a job to do, it taps into its needs for structure, purpose, and the feeling of contributing to its pack, which in a domestic setting translates to its human family.

But let’s be honest: In a traditional domestic setting, dogs have fewer chores they can do as they would on a farm or as part of a rescue unit. A doggy mom in Vancouver Island, Canada had fun with her dog’s purposeful uselessness by sharing the 5 “chores” her pitbull-Lab mix does around the house.

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Representative Image from Canva

Let's not curse any more children with bad names, shall we?

Some parents have no trouble giving their children perfectly unique, very meaningful names that won’t go on to ruin their adulthood. But others…well…they get an A for effort, but might want to consider hiring a baby name professional.

Things of course get even more complicated when one parent becomes attached to a name that they’re partner finds completely off-putting. It almost always leads to a squabble, because the more one parent is against the name, the more the other parent will go to bat for it.

This seemed to be the case for one soon-to-be mom on the Reddit AITA forum recently. Apparently, she was second-guessing her vehement reaction to her husband’s, ahem, avant garde baby name for their daughter, which she called “the worst name ever.”

But honestly, when you hear this name, I think you’ll agree she was totally in the right.

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A woman looking at her phone while sitting on the toilet.


One of the most popular health trends over the last few years has been staying as hydrated as possible, evidenced by the massive popularity of 40-oz Stanely Quencher cups. The theory among those who obsess over hydration is that, when you pee clear, you’ve removed all the waste in your body and are enjoying the incredible benefits of being 100% hydrated. Congratulations.

However, according to Dr. Sermed Mezher, an NHS doctor in the UK, peeing clear isn’t always a sign of being healthy.

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A beautiful cruise ship crossing the seas.

Going on a cruise can be an incredible getaway from the stresses of life on the mainland. However, that doesn’t mean there isn’t an element of danger when living on a ship 200-plus feet high, traveling up to 35 miles per hour and subject to the whims of the sea.

An average of about 19 people go overboard every year, and only around 28% survive. Cruise ship lawyer Spencer Aronfeld explained the phenomenon in a viral TikTok video, in which he also revealed the secret code the crew uses when tragedy happens.

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Joy

Kudos to the heroes who had 90 seconds to save lives in the Key Bridge collapse

The loss of 6 lives is tragic, but the dispatch recording shows it could have been so much worse.

Representative image by Gustavo Fring/Pexels

The workers who responded to the Dali's mayday call saved lives with their quick response.

As more details of the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse in Baltimore emerge, it's becoming more apparent how much worse this catastrophe could have been.

Just minutes before 1:30am on March 26, shortly after leaving port in Baltimore Harbor, a cargo ship named Dali lost power and control of its steering, sending it careening into a structural pillar on Key Bridge. The crew of the Dali issued a mayday call at 1:26am to alert authorities of the power failure, giving responders crucial moments to prepare for a potential collision. Just 90 seconds later, the ship hit a pylon, triggering a total collapse of the 1.6-mile bridge into the Patapsco River.

Dispatch audio of those moments shows the calm professionalism and quick actions that limited the loss of life in an unexpected situation where every second counted.

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Joy

Yale's pep band had to miss the NCAA tournament. University of Idaho said, 'We got you.'

In an act of true sportsmanship, the Vandal band learned Yale's fight song, wore their gear and cheered them on.

Courtesy of University of Idaho

The Idaho Vandals answered the call when Yale needed a pep band.

Yale University and the University of Idaho could not be more different. Ivy League vs. state school. East Coast vs. Pacific Northwest. City vs. farm town. But in the first two rounds of the NCAA basketball tournament, extenuating circumstances brought them together as one, with the Bulldogs and the Vandals becoming the "Vandogs" for a weekend.

When Yale made it to the March Madness tournament, members of the school's pep band had already committed to other travel plans during spring break. They couldn't gather enough members to make the trek across the country to Spokane, Washington, so the Yale Bulldogs were left without their fight song unless other arrangements could be made.

When University of Idaho athletic band director Spencer Martin got wind of the need less than a week before Yale's game against Auburn, he sent out a message to his band members asking if anyone would be interested in stepping in. The response was a wave of immediate yeses, so Martin got to work arranging instruments and the students dedicated themselves to learning Yale's fight song and other traditional Yale pep songs.

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