Two trends affect modern fatherhood simultaneously: on the one hand, there is an increased emphasis on paternal involvement in the lives of young children. On the other hand, rates of parental break-up have increased, and fathers often live apart from their children. Norway is a country in which both trends are very strong. This article looks at the patterns of contact between non-resident fathers in Norway and their children, focusing on the extreme ends of the distribution: fathers with weekly contact, and fathers who have not seen their children in three months or more. After a brief overview of recent developments in Norwegian family policies, some key dilemmas and tensions in modern family life are identified. One relate to commitment in cohabiting relationships, another to the tension between commitment to children from previous relationships and new partners. A third factor that is taken into consideration, is poverty. In the empirical analysis, we find no difference in the odds for having frequent/ very infrequent contact between formerly married and formerly cohabiting fathers, nor between fathers who live alone and fathers who have repartnered. Poverty is however a strong indicator of loss of contact.

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‘Feminist’ social policy has done an important job in developing new concepts for studying welfare state variation. But just like ‘mainstream’ social policy, gender-sensitive analyses have their blind spots. This article argues that differences in policies towards children remain an understudied area, and that developing concepts for varying policy approaches to children can increase our understanding of social political differences. Two countries – the UK and Norway – are juxtaposed in the empirical analysis, which centres on policies towards children living with one parent and the development of universal child benefits. The empirical discussion suggests that the UK traditionally has been closer to an ‘organic’ view of the family, while Norway has been closer to an ‘individual’ view. Two dimensions are highlighted: the separation of parenting and partnering for the purposes of social benefits, and the extent to which the ‘worthiness’ of the parents determine transfers to children. Both these dimensions have the potential to influence strongly distribution between families with children, as well as the legitimacy of the benefits. They should therefore be of crucial importance in comparative studies of family policy and social policy.

The Norwegian Parliament passed new rules for child maintenance determination in 2001. This article discusses the 2001 reform, and the debate preceding it, in the light of literature on changing ‘breadwinner assumptions’ in social policy. It is argued that the reform was a clear example of the politicisation of fatherhood in Norway, in that a key concern was to encourage continued care from non-resident fathers. Much less attention was paid to the situation of custodial parents, and to children's material needs. In assuming that parents living apart will conform to the (yet unusual) dual earner/dual carer model, policy makers may be putting undue stress on vulnerable families.