Some nights the IT project manager goes home at tea time to see his wife and daughters Lakeisha, 3, and eight-month-old Keirabella and then returns to work after they're asleep, to catch up on projects until the early hours of the morning.

''It'd be nice just to be able to have your total focus on the family, without having to worry about spending time to generate an income,'' he said. ''But a lot of the time you're so busy you don't have time to think about that.''

As the Federal Government moves to introduce paid maternity leave, the plight of working fathers - and the nation's culture of long working hours - is gaining academic attention.

University of Sydney's Brigid van Wanrooy has told a conference at the Australian National University that men tended to overcompensate when their partners took on most of the caring responsibilities at home.

About 50 per cent of middle-aged men wanted to work fewer hours, she said, but were trapped into thinking that they needed to work long hours to have a good career and provide for the family.

''People have just learnt to accept these hours and just think that's the norm and that's what you have to do to have a good career and a job.''

Australia has some of the longest full-time working hours in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, where full-time staff work an average of 44 hours per week.

Dr van Wanrooy said the Federal Government needed to acknowledge there was a working time problem in Australia. ''I think we need to have some sort of regulation, some sort of protection against long hours.''

She said Australia could take the lead from the European Union, which specified people should not work more than 48 hours a week.

''We could implement it through occupational health and safety standards to say working more than 50 hours a week is bad for your health, it's not good for you, it's not good for your family, it's not good for the community,'' she said.

Mr Watson said he had to cut down on other activities, such as being part of the Army Reserve, in order to work and spend quality time with his family.

But having children was definitely worth all the sacrifices and hard work.

''You don't realise until you've actually got them how good it is,'' he said. ''How amazing they are and the things they do and how much pleasure there is in being with them.''

The conference considered the findings so far of the Negotiating the Life Course project.

The national survey project used a sample of Australians who had been interviewed every three years since the project began in 1997.

Conference organiser and the director of the ANU's Australian Demographic and Social Research Institute, Professor Peter McDonald, said Australians had invested in higher levels of education since the 1970s, with the expectation it would lead to higher living standards and a wider range of choices.

''In the process, the life courses of Australians have changed,'' he said.

''They have stayed longer at home with their parents, they have lived together with a partner before marriage and young people have prioritised their work reputation over family formation.''