My wife has often told me that I experienced “a simulation of single-parenthood” during her medical school and residency. I don’t feel like I encountered barriers, but I was in an especially lucky situation working from home most of the time which gave me lots of flexibility for childcare. Although there was about a year where I worked in an office downtown. I had to leave the office a bit early every day to pick up the kids. Fortunately I had an employer who didn’t have a problem with that. And my office-mates were very supportive of the kids coming to the office once in a while on no-school days.

Something I have noticed is occasional profuse praise for handling basic parenting responsibilities as a man. And a little feeling of weirdness on the school’s annual “dads take kids to school” day.

OTOH I haven’t interacted much with other parents, parenting groups, or the PTA. I’m not great at introducing myself to strangers. Maybe my gender makes it a little more difficult to connect with parenting groups, I don’t know.

But my wife just finished her residency! So we’ll see how things change.