The responsibility of bringing up children should be shared equally between mother and father.

The idea that both parents should contribute actively to bringing up their offspring would seem hard to dispute. This does not mean however that all the tasks in the child they rearing process should be shared equally. The idea of tasks being shared equally between parents contains several assumptions. One assumption is that both parents have equal amounts of available time and are both available to do what is required at the time it is required. Clearly, this is often not the case. If, for example, a child needs help with some homework one evening and one parent is required to work late, the task falls to other parent. Therefore, despite genuine attempts to share duties equally, it will not always be practically possible to do so. The second assumption which is implied by the idea of sharing tasks equally is that both parents are equally well prepared or skilled to do all tasks. Again this is clearly not the case most of the time. For instance, it may be that the mother is a teacher and able to provide the kind of support the child needs with their homework more effectively than the father. In conclusion, it would seem that the 'equally ' point to view may not always be in the child's best interest. A more effective approach might be, for couples, to agree on how they can best use their resources. Even if this is accomplished, however, it is unlikely to be achievable constantly due to pratical restraints.