By combining quantitative analyses of survey data with qualitative analyses of interviewswith first-time parents, this study gives new insights into parents’ division of parental leavein Sweden and the links between fathers’ leave length and the division of child care whenboth are back at work again. Quantitative results show that mothers’ and fathers’ parentalleave lengths vary substantially with the reasons for division of leave and that fathers’parental leave length is related to the long-term division of child care as well as to mothers’satisfaction with it. Qualitative results suggest that although gender equality and equalparenting is central to the first-time, middle-class parents that were interviewed, moretraditional norms and ideals about the mother as the primary caretaker may stand in the wayof an equal sharing of the leave during the child’s first year. The study also suggests severalmechanisms through which fathers’ parental leave may causally influence later division ofchildcare, including a development of a closer relationship between the father and the childand a greater understanding between the parents.