By Sarah Womack
London


Children benefit from seeing their fathers help around the house and women find men more attractive if they pick up a duster, researchers have found.

A study says children who do their share of cleaning with their fathers are likely to be better adjusted and more socially aware because they learn "democratic values" at an early age.

Researchers at the University of California studied the results of a national survey of 3563 children and their parents.

Unsurprisingly, men did less housework than women, but the study found they were taking on tasks such as shopping and picking up children from school as well as some cooking and cleaning.

Men also spent more time around their children than in previous generations - about three hours on a Saturday or Sunday.

University of California sociologist Scott Coltrane, who led the research, said: "When men perform domestic service for others, it teaches children co-operation and democratic family values."

Dr John Gottman, of the University of Washington in Seattle, said if men shared the tasks, women felt less stressed about balancing the demands of work and home. They also saw their partner's assistance as a sign of love and therefore felt more sexually attracted to them.


In Britain, however, therapists claim to have identified a new condition, named Atlas Syndrome - after the Greek god who supported the sky on his shoulders - which afflicts men who hold down demanding jobs while trying to be perfect parents.

The term was coined by Dr Tim Cantopher, a medical director at Priory Clinic, the hospital favoured by celebrities needing treatment for addictions.

He said it struck men who were trying to "work the unworkable", adding: "It's a modern condition caused by social and political changes affecting the role of men."

Jack O'Sullivan, co-founder of Fathers Direct and editor of Dad magazine, said this generation of fathers was living out a huge social change. "They're working just as hard but at the same time they're committed to doing a great deal more at home so they are inevitably stressed out."

- Telegraph

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