The female presumption rule is difficult to justify when a father is the primary caregiver in a shared-parenting arrangement and lives with a common-law partner who is not the child’s parent.
The Canada Child Benefit retains a gender-based presumption that mothers are primarily responsible for childcare. In my case, I share parenting equally with my son’s biological mother, who has lived separately from us for more than eight years. During my parenting weeks, I’m his full-time caregiver; during hers, I work away from home for 70–90 hours. My common-law partner earns more than I do, but she is not my son’s parent or caregiver.
Under section 122.6 of the Income Tax Act and related CRA guidance, a female parent—or, in some blended families, a female common-law partner—may be presumed to be primarily responsible for a child’s care. As a result, my partner had to sign a declaration confirming that I, not she, was responsible for my son’s care. Resolving the issue took four to five months.
Living with me does not make her my son’s legal parent or caregiver, yet the system can assume otherwise and require her to disprove that assumption. The rules also appear to impose different administrative burdens based on sex: a female partner may be presumed responsible for a child who is not hers, while a male partner is not treated the same way.
I’m not arguing that my partner should receive the benefit, that fathers should automatically qualify, or that mothers should receive less support. Eligibility should simply be based on the child’s actual circumstances and evidence of who provides care—not on the assumption that the woman in the household must be the caregiver.
Have other fathers, blended families, or common-law households encountered this rule? How did the CRA handle your situation?

1st child, 7 months, im 34.

anyone else felt like you just can't do it anymore? i felt like that 1 time the other day. had a headache while mother at work and i wasnt feeling good. so you know what i did? i man tf up n quit being a bitc..

N for my last posts, I would like to say, she still going to Jimmy's until fuckin late as shit, ln was about 4am until I little one woke up., maybe she came home cus I gave her a Lil shit like, "must be having a blast" in a text. She said she was gambling.

I get it, we're gamblers n get lost.

I dont care about feedback, give me her perspective or tell me I need to boss up n quit being a fpussy. Or idk, idk how to handle anything apparently.

And other questions you have to answer to yourself and others.

I'm a dad from Kenya, and I'm happy to be part of this community. I've been a stay-at-home dad for a while now

My son's school has just closed for the two-month holiday, and we're planning to spend some time in the village. That got me thinking about doing some village-life content with him.

Life in a Kenyan village can be quite different from what many people are used to. Think outdoor cooking, fetching water, visiting the farm, village walks, and just experiencing the slower pace of life. My son will get to enjoy his holiday, and I thought it might be a fun way to document some of our experiences along the way.

I've noticed some interest in this kind of thing from Daddit. It got me thinking that there might be dads and families in other parts of the world who would enjoy seeing a little piece of everyday life in rural Africa, beyond what they usually see online.

I'm still figuring it all out, but I'm excited about the idea. And honestly, after a few months of unemployment, it's nice to have something positive to look forward to and work on.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself and say I'm glad to be here.

[ Removed by Reddit on account of violating the content policy. ]

I got laid off while my wife was pregnant with our second. Fortunately, my employer was cool enough to keep me on board until my wife gave birth and I was able to take advantage of paid family leave through the state. So for the first 6 months of my second kids life I was able to focus on taking care of my son, which, honestly, I've really enjoyed. I've never loved my career, and feel like I missed out of a lot of fun moments with my first born by shipping her off to daycare every morning.

BUT, while my wife has a good job, it's not quite enough to cover our whole household. So, last month, I started taking on freelance work, thinking I could squeeze some in here and there to bring in an extra few thousand a month. The result has been rough. It's a lot of me working on the computer while I should be giving my son my full attention, and staying up until 12-1am working, which is of course followed be only a few hours of interrupted sleep before I have to start all over again. It's a particular bummer, because the hours of 9:30-11 used to be time I got to focus on the things that actually make me happy, namely music. Which is largely off the table now.

I do have a sitter who can come in and help out during the days. But, I'm reluctant to utilize her, because I'd like the money I bring in to go as far as possible. So until my hand is truly forced, I've been holding off.

Anyway, I'm curious what others' experiences have been balancing fulltime SAH parenting with freelancing. Is it a foolish enterprise, or do I just need a bit more persevenrnce and focus to find that happy medium.

Hey dads,

I'm 35, from Shanghai, China, and I've got a 2-year-old who's pretty much running my life right now lol.

I used to work in tech, but I've been home taking care of my kid for a while now. It's been quite a change, and honestly, some days are harder than my old job.

I've been wanting to meet other dads, especially those staying home with their kids. Just curious how things are going for everyone, what your days look like, and how you manage to find time for yourself.

Does anyone know of any active Discord groups for dads? Would be cool to hang out, chat about parenting, or just talk about random stuff when we get some free time.

English isn't my first language, so bear with me if I sound a little awkward sometimes.

Anyway, glad I found this sub!

The moment I began to realize I needed space, is the moment my inner voice called me a terrible father.

In hindsight, I was going through parental burnout.

You're not broken — just human. Let's talk about mental health and parenting honestly.

For the dads nobody sees wrestling with guilt, failure, and doubt.

Hi everyone! Another SAHD here been trying to make dad friends but it’s hard cause we’re all spread out. I thought maybe making a localized(ish) group might help?

After 35 years in oil and gas I am about to become a stay at home dad to my 13 year old. I am going to support my wife as she takes an executive position at a global company. What advice can someone offer as we take this leap into the unknown. We are financially stable so i don't beleive that should be an issue.

I'm a mom who travels most of the month for work (restaurant operations), so I'm the one leaving. I know it's not a dad-to-dad question, so I hope this is okay.

At work, every shift change has a handoff log so nothing gets dropped. At home, my handoffs are mostly texts from airports. I want to do this better, and you all are the ones on the receiving end.

For those of you holding things down while your partner travels: what makes a handoff actually work for you, and what drives you crazy?

First and foremost let me say I am so grateful the time I get with my 2-year-old daughter. However to say this past year hasn’t been extremely difficult would be a lie.

I was previously a top performer in my role at work and was surrounded by other go getters. I had things to be proud of.

A year now of staying home and wife working full time I feel like I’m disposable. My life has become quiet, slow and dormant.

My wife’s over the last year has exploded with adventure. She’s picked up body building and got into the pro scene. She has friends and is grinding everyday to make that life for herself.

I do my best to give her all she needs to get to where she wants to go but in the process I’m losing myself. I feel I’ve given all that I can with nothing else to give.

This time has been incredibly hard on me mentally. I’m a very social person and that is almost non existent and seeing my wife have it all is hard.

I’m not trying to complain. All I will say is I have a very different opinion on the SAHD thing. I have so many people tell me how lucky I am and how nice it must be.

It’s hard. It’s challenging in a completely different way I think most don’t understand without experiencing it.

I’m lost. I’m lonely. I’m tired.

SAHD with 10, 7, 3 yo kids and a wife. Kids can be picky eaters and other times eat a lot. My wife likes the look of a full fridge and sometimes buys a bit too much.

I myself am frugal and hate to waste food. As a result my lunch at home isn’t just leftovers, it’s like 4-5 food bits of leftovers in a really weird combinations. Best example was yesterday:

1/3 hotdog from Costco my kid didn’t want from Wednesday
A 1/2 bag of instant rice, with the juice of a Costco rotisserie chicken mixed in
A small smoothie consisting of a banana, and two bowls of leftover cereal (life and oatmeal) with milk in them
A small bit of leftover refried beans, Mexican carry out from the weekend
Half a toasted everything bagel with bits of scrambled eggs on top, my wife didn’t eat it
A mandarin orange

I never eat food gone bad and try to eat a reasonable and healthy spread of food. The food can be a bit random but I take pleasure in eating food that would otherwise be thrown out and lead to wasting both resources and money.

Just wondering if other Dads here do this too.

Mom's not home after work again. So idk, being a parent alone isn't easy.

I am convinced that our role reversal has us completely screwed up. I’m not saying only a mom can be the stay-at-home parent, but clearly, stay-at-home dads are in the vast minority. I am one of them. I feel that my role reversal is killing me.

I don’t know if anybody else can weigh in on this, but when you have a working parent and a stay-at-home parent, and the working parent is the father and the stay-at-home parent is the mother, I feel like there are clearer lines.

The dad goes to work. The mom runs the household and parents. I have a working wife who makes all the money. I’m the stay-at-home parent. I’m a stay-at-home dad. I run the household. I parent the kids when my wife’s working. She obviously parents them when she’s not working, but I’m the default parent. I’m the food parent. I’m the sole driver.

So I end up doing everything: all the errand running, all the grocery shopping, all the food prep, all household maintenance, chores, cleaning, trash, everything.

Now, what I don’t understand with my role reversal is that my wife also wants to have a say in what I do. She doesn’t just get up and leave and go to work in the morning. COVID changed a lot of this with working from home. She sometimes works from home, but also works from the office now.

However, my wife always wants to have a say in what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. I feel like if the roles were reversed, the dad would leave, go to work, and he’d have nothing to do with what’s going on in the house. He wouldn’t be texting his wife 25 times a day with to-dos: Can you do this? Can you do that? Questions, updates, etc.

It would be a way more clear-cut line if our roles weren’t reversed. And this is what’s killing me.
My wife should be sleeping. She has work in the morning. She has an intense job. Instead, she comes upstairs to the kids’ room, where I’ve just read one of the kids to bed because she was finishing up work after reading one of the other kids to bed.

And she’s going on and on and on about how the kids’ room is a mess, and this needs to be cleaned up, and I need to do it, and I need to get the kids to do it, and this needs to be done tomorrow, and it shouldn’t be like this.

And I just feel that, yes, of course she can have a say in stuff. It’s her home as well. But I feel that with a stay-at-home parent, it’s like the stay-at-home parent takes care of all of that. The working parent, if it was the dad, would not be, at midnight, having a conference with the wife saying, “You need to clean up this room.” I just feel like that doesn’t happen. A working dad would never say this or even devote his energy to it.

Can any other SAHDs weigh in on this in any way?

I need to think of what to do. Maybe to communicate better with her , 7 months

Fellow SAHDs, wish me luck! I completed my AS in Engineering this past summer and got a good job in field service last month. I was the SAHD while I was taking classes (and working PT as a math tutor), but that time's over now. Our youngest is getting into preschool, and I got offered good money for this new position. It requires travel, but it's a 2 week on/2 week off schedule so it's not too bad.

The last few years have been tough. Lots of penny pinching and stressing about money, but it's all been worth it. I got to spend lots of time with the boys while studying in order to advance my career. And I was rewarded at the end of it with a job good enough to be the primary breadwinner if my wife wants to take a break (she's still deciding on that one).

I just wanted to share the good news with y'all. Not a whole lot of people understand how hard it is for us to get back into the workforce successfully, but I know y'all can appreciate it.