{"id":378252,"date":"2026-04-14T02:02:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378252\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T02:02:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T02:02:17","slug":"laura-henshaws-husband-dalton-on-why-he-took-3-months-paternity-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/378252\/","title":{"rendered":"Laura Henshaw\u2019s husband Dalton on why he took 3 months paternity leave"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe idea that a father might step away for three months to simply be present for baby and mum \u2013 to do the unglamorous, repetitive, irreplaceable work of early bonding \u2013 still raises eyebrows in a way it shouldn\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">Dalton said gender-neutral paternity leave still doesn\u2019t feel available to many men.<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cNot because the policy doesn\u2019t exist. But because the culture around it often doesn\u2019t,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cThe unspoken message in most workplaces is still: take a couple of weeks, be grateful, get back to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">Having founded \u201cgrowth company\u201d Bullfrog, Dalton said his background in business gave him an understanding of how important it is to lead by example.<\/p>\n<p><img  alt=\"Laura Henshaw (pictured right with Steph Claire Smith) welcomed her first child in December. Photo \/ Instagram\" class=\"article-media__image responsively-lazy\" data-test-ui=\"article-media__image\"\/>Laura Henshaw (pictured right with Steph Claire Smith) welcomed her first child in December. Photo \/ Instagram<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cHere\u2019s what I believe as a founder and a leader: if your company policy only exists on paper \u2013 if the culture makes people feel like taking it is a risk to their career, their reputation, or how they\u2019re perceived \u2013 then the policy means nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">He advised new fathers in important roles to take the time off if they can or \u201cbuild the culture that makes it possible if you can\u2019t yet\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">The Australian couple <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/lifestyle\/laura-henshaws-husband-dalton-explains-why-he-took-her-surname\/DW2LKT2YZAXJMGHTWDWX5O5P6M\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/lifestyle\/laura-henshaws-husband-dalton-explains-why-he-took-her-surname\/DW2LKT2YZAXJMGHTWDWX5O5P6M\/\">first made waves<\/a> when Dalton took Laura\u2019s last name after their 2021 wedding.<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">On an episode of Laura\u2019s podcast KIC POD, he said the decision had been pragmatic as they wanted their future children to have the same last name as their parents.<\/p>\n<p class=\"AxwMXWBswqbhpKS\" style=\"display:none\">He told Laura: \u201cI also know how hard you\u2019ve worked to achieve what you have in your career and your name is so closely attached to being the CEO of Keep It Cleaner and the career you\u2019ve carved out for yourself. It made a lot more sense for me to take your name.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe idea that a father might step away for three months to simply be present for baby and&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378253,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[6255,54761,156,565,197000,692,196999,196998,10109,8235,17211,12514,3234,111,139,69,90,3766,158823,12860,3168,11668,6382,2766,4276,19135],"class_list":{"0":"post-378252","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-businessman","9":"tag-dalton","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-fitness","12":"tag-genderneutral","13":"tag-he","14":"tag-henshaw","15":"tag-henshaws","16":"tag-husband","17":"tag-influencer","18":"tag-laura","19":"tag-leave","20":"tag-months","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-newzealand","23":"tag-nz","24":"tag-on","25":"tag-parents","26":"tag-paternity","27":"tag-revealed","28":"tag-shared","29":"tag-thoughts","30":"tag-took","31":"tag-treatment","32":"tag-why","33":"tag-working"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}