In recent years, academics have shown interest in the phenomenon of intensive parenting, which has predominantly focussed on mothers as primary caregivers. In this paper we seek to move beyond approaches which invoke a maternal lens in order to consider fathers' experience of intensive parenting in relation to their lives with partners. Drawing on data from a qualitative longitudinal study of men over the transition to fatherhood we explore men's experiences of the benefits and challenges of an intensive parenting approach. Despite increased involvement in childcare, men appear to be relatively insulated against the demands of intensive parenting, describing the importance of autonomous decision-making over following expert advice. However, this paper considers the way in which other aspects of contemporary parenting may be experienced more intensively by men, pointing to gender differentiation in risks related to a moral parenthood identity.

Much has been made of the apparent trend towards men's greater involvement in fatherhood, suggesting moves towards more egalitarian couple relationships characterised by greater role-sharing. Yet alongside this it has also been argued that the breadwinner/provider role remains central to men's fatherhood identity and continues to be underlined by current policy. That providing apparently remains a central aspect of successful fatherhood subsequently raises potential challenges for men who experience unemployment. Presenting illustrative case study data from a qualitative longitudinal study, we explore how changes in occupational trajectories away from models of full-time working outside of the home hold implications for men's sense of competence or vulnerability, and how provider and involved carer positions are intertwined in men's fatherhood identities.

Using Timescapes 'Men as Fathers' (MAF) project data, qualitative longitudinal (QL) and psychosocial case study approaches are showcased for studying the making of paternal subjectivity in and through time. The accounts of two men from self-defined 'working' and 'middle-class' backgrounds are explored, focusing on how their lines of flight as paternal subjects are shaped by tensions between a push towards new subjectivities and the pull of old discourses. The men's vexed intergenerational inheritance of classed versions of masculinity is shown to be an energizing force which, in dynamic relationship to other social and discursive forces, produces shifting investments in motherly and affectionate models of fathering. Adopting QL and psychosocial lenses, and foregrounding the importance of men's intergenerational experiences, positions and transitions as paternal subjects, provides insights into the broad sociocultural transformations in masculinity and fatherhood threading through the dynamics of individual lives.

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