There are now ten times as many stay-at-home dads as a decade ago, a survey has revealed.
The findings suggest there are 1.4 million men - in one in seven families - whose main role is primary carer for their children.
The result is ten times higher than similar surveys found a decade ago and shows that fathers are now willing in large numbers to relinquish the responsibility for being the family breadwinner and instead take on the burdens of the home.
Among the fathers, 43 percent said they felt lucky to have the opportunity to stay at home and bring up their children, but 46 percent said the decision to stay at home was taken to allow the family's main earner to keep working.
And the research also found a downside to the switch of childcare duties from women to men, with almost one in five stay-at-home fathers saying that their role makes them feel "less of a man", while around one in eight admitted that looking after children is harder than holding down a job.
The same number wish they could earn more so they could be the one to go out to work.
The collapse of the gender pay gap - women under 30 now earn more than men and older women are usually only paid less if they take time off to bring up families - means mothers are highly likely to have fatter pay packets than fathers.
And while women are now able to be the family breadwinner, a third of mothers feel guilty about going out to work and leaving the children.
A further one in five complain that they are really doing two jobs because they have to look after the home when they get back from work, and one in ten say the division of household chores causes marital discord.
The survey of 2,000 families with children, carried out for insurer Aviva, said 14 per cent of families with children have a father with the main responsibility for looking after the children.
Just over one in four fathers gave up work or cut their hours after their children were born. Some 44 per cent look after their children regularly while their wife or partner is at work.
There was strong evidence that many women would prefer to stay at home themselves if the family economics were different. In the past surveys have repeatedly found that three quarters of working mothers would prefer to stay at home.


据英国《每日邮报》10月25日报道，一项调查显示，现今英国"全职爸爸"的数量是十年前的十倍。
调查结果显示，有140万男性--每七个家庭中就有一个--在家庭中担任着孩子的主要照顾者。

这一结果较之十年前类似的调查高出了十倍，这表明有许多男性现在愿意放弃作为家庭经济支柱的责任，而选择负担家务生活。


在这些"全职爸爸"中，有百分之四十三的人说他们对于有机会呆在家里抚养孩子感到很幸运，但还有百分之四十六的人则说做出这一决定是为了保证家庭收入的主要来源稳定，让赚得比较多的一方继续工作。

这一研究也暴露出了照顾孩子的责任从女性转向男性的一个缺点，大约五分之一的"全职爸爸"认为他们的这种家庭角色让他们感到自己"不太像个男人"，同时，还有大约八分之一的人承认照顾孩子比工作更难。

还有相同数量的人希望他们能赚得更多，这样就可以成为外出工作的那一个了。

男女收入的高低差距已和从前不同--如今30岁以下的女性通常比男性赚得更多，而较年长的女性如果休假照顾家人，通常只是少赚一点而已--这意味着母亲比父亲更有可能得到丰厚的薪酬。
不过虽然现在女性可以成为家庭的经济支柱，仍有三分之一的女性会因为外出工作离开孩子而感到内疚。

还有五分之一的人抱怨说，其实她们在做两份工作，因为当她们下班回家后还不得不照顾家人的生活，十分之一的人认为家务分工的问题会导致婚姻不和谐。

英杰华保险集团对2000个有孩子的家庭进行了调查，结果显示百分之十四的家庭是由父亲担负着照顾孩子的主要责任。

只有刚刚超过四分之一的男性在孩子出生后放弃了工作或是削减了工作时间。大约有百分之四十四的人会在妻子或是伴侣工作时定期照顾小孩。

有力的证据证明，如果家庭经济状况不同，许多女性本身其实更愿意呆在家里。在以往的调查中曾多次发现，四分之三外出工作的母亲更希望留在家中。

• survey [´sə:vei] vt.&n.俯瞰；审视；测量 (初中英语单词)
• primary [´praiməri] a.主要的 n.居首位的 (初中英语单词)
• willing [´wiliŋ] a.情愿的，乐意的 (初中英语单词)
• responsibility [ri,spɔnsə´biliti] n.责任(心)；职责；任务 (初中英语单词)
• research [ri´sə:tʃ] n.&vi.调查；探究；研究 (初中英语单词)
• guilty [´gilti] a.有罪的；心虚的 (初中英语单词)
• complain [kəm´plein] vi.抱怨，叫屈；控诉 (初中英语单词)
• partner [´pɑ:tnə] n.伙伴 v.同....合作 (初中英语单词)
• working [´wə:kiŋ] a.工人的；劳动的 (初中英语单词)
• decade [´dekeid] n.十年(间) (高中英语单词)
• switch [switʃ] n.开关 v.转换 (高中英语单词)
• saying [´seiŋ, ´sei-iŋ] n.言语；言论；格言 (高中英语单词)
• collapse [kə´læps] vi.&n.崩溃；病倒；衰败 (高中英语单词)
• regularly [´regjuləli] ad.有规律地；经常地 (高中英语单词)
• economics [i:kə´nɔmiks, i:,-] n.经济学 (英语四级单词)
• repeatedly [ri´pi:tidli] ad.反复地；再三地 (英语四级单词)
• relinquish [ri´liŋkwiʃ] vt.放弃；撤回；停止 (英语六级单词)
• holding [´həuldiŋ] n.保持，固定，存储 (英语六级单词)