IN my own case, the post industrial option has made it possible to spend more time with my daughter than would have been possible at began working, some two decades ago. A few years back I voluntarily surrendered my full time employment, opting instead to work on a freelance basis from home. I lost some money but gained a great deal of freedom. I think of myself as the post industrial, post modern... laptop dad.

That decision now means that I have the freedom to look after Roisin at every opportunity, to go to London, where she lives, practically every weekend, and have her here in Ireland for occasional short periods. If I needed to look after her all the time, I would find a way to do it.

But not all workplaces are as father friendly as The Irish Times. As, yet, such options are available only to a small minority of men. Women, by virtue of their childbearing function, have a multiplicity of options mothering, working, and various permutations of the two - while men have fewer and fewer. And because the workplace has been governed by the law of the jungle, few men have the luxury of experimenting. Those, who try to experiment can risk running foul of hostile attitudes and bureaucratic structures which evolved to protect a corporate culture; based on keeping men out of the house. We are a long way from discovering the obvious - that men and women who have a happy home life make for the most effective corporate warriors.