Key to Happy Marriage: Mom Cooks, Dad Plays?

This latest study on shared parenting, from Ohio State University and published in the January issue of Developmental Psychology, found that couples where the father participates equally in traditional caregiving tasks, like  preparing meals or giving baths, tend to clash more than couples where the mother does a bigger share. Specifically, couples that strive for more equal co-parenting end up displaying “less supportive and more undermining co-parenting behaviour toward each other,” the researchers found. But when the father spent more time playing with the kid, while the mom did more of the nuts-and-bolts caregiving, the couples had a “stronger, more supportive co-parenting relationship.”