Footballer Shane Long has opened up the guilt he felt for having to leave his wife three hours after she gave birth to their eldest child.
Shane and Kayleah are parents to Teigan, 16, Erin, 12, and nine-year-old Jax.
The former Republic of Ireland player who retired from the sport in 2023, opened up about missing bonding moments with his children, revealing that he left three hours after his first child was born.
He said: ‘My eldest was born at 5.59AM, and I was gone at 9AM then to travel to the away game for the first, more or less, 48 hours of her life and putting that pressure on my wife and stuff.
‘I’ve kind of learned from my mistakes, and now I’m trying to get the word out there to the governments to offer better paternity leave because it is moments you don’t get back, you know, spending that time in front and bonding with your kids,’ he told the Irish Mirror.
Shane was speaking as he backed Movember’s call on the government for better paternity for dads. The call comes after a report revealed that Irish fathers lose three-quarters of their weekly income while on leave.
They also receive a bare minimum of 2 weeks of paternity leave, which lags well behind other EU countries.
Shane stressed that the first days and weeks with a newborn were the most important, both for building a connection with your child and for supporting your partner.
‘They are the bonding moments. You know, they learn your smell, they sense, everything about you.
‘You get that connection with them, and you know, even on top of that, then as well, it’s just that being with your wife so that she has that support beside her, and you got that other pair of hands, someone, that she can depend on to help out.
‘I suppose I wasn’t around as much as she would like because of my footballing career. She never complained about that. For me, looking back, it would have been nice to be more around, but I’m making up for it now,’ he added.
