'I had to watch my daughter grow up through my phone'

The UK has the least generous paternity policy in Europe, with most fathers getting just two weeks with their newborn. As it shapes up to be a huge election issue, Katie Rosseinsky asks what needs to be done to make parenting more equal

- Katie Rosseinsky

When Billy Beech’s daughter was born in 2019, he was able to take the maximum two weeks of paternity leave from his job as a groundsman at a Premier League football club. It went by “in a flash”, the 33-year-old says. “For two weeks she was asleep on my chest, we were cuddling and feeding, and then that’s gone before you know it.” After that fortnight, he returned to work. “You’re still worried about the baby, you’re still tired, you’re still thinking, right, I need to get home,” he recalls. The fact that his wife was still recovering from a C-section was an extra concern, too. Back in his job at the stadium, he ended up “watching [his daughter] grow up through my phone” – receiving “photos [and messages] saying, ‘She rolled here, she’s moving around, look how cute she is’. You miss those moments.”

It’s a situation that many dads will recognise all too well: the blur of the first couple of weeks adjusting to life as a new parent, followed by a jarringly quick return to your old routine. As Beech puts it: “Your life has changed forever … and now you’re right back where you left off.” For many fathers like him, statutory paternity leave provision feels insufficient – and no wonder, given that the UK’s offering is the least generous in Europe.