When the idea of becoming a stay-at-home dad was floated to Cameron Whittaker, he barely gave it a second thought.
Beginning as purely a financial decision, after crunching their finances the Brisbane dad and his wife Caitlyn realised they were in a position where he could stay at home, if she returned to work as an electrical engineer when their son Max was three months old.
Currently, the Australian government offers two weeks Dad and Partner Pay at minimum wage while mums are offered 18 weeks leave as primary carer.
The primary carer leave can be transferred behind the parents, but the Australian Bureau of Statistics found only five per cent of fathers take up that arrangement. Cameron is one of them.
Cam on SBS Insight tonight. Post continues below video.
Speaking to Mamamia, Cameron said his father had left his family when he was only three, leaving his mother with four children under 13.
"He just decided one day that being a husband and dad was all just a bit too hard and left," Cam said, adding no one in his family has had any contact with him since.
"I only just learned this three or four months ago when speaking to my brother who lives overseas; He said dad's dad, my grandad on my dad's side who I didn't know, did the same thing to my dad and he hated him for it. And then my dad did they exact same thing."