Men are putting their families before careers and spending more time at home with their children, according to a new survey.

The traditional family image of dad being the sole breadwinner, working long hours while mum raised the kids, has long been outdated with more mothers in the workplace.

Now it seems men are recognising the importance of time spent with children with a report finding more fathers are now sacrificing earnings and career prospects to spend more time with their young children, with almost half of fathers opting to be at home rather than at work, more often.

Employers, however, have still to catch up, with fathers claiming they are unsupportive and need to embrace a flexible attitude to allow an improved work-life balance for staff.

The study of fathers across the UK by financial institution ING Direct found 43% have made a decision to curtail their career or earning capacity to spend more time at home.

Interviews with working dads found the 43% included those who regularly refuse overtime and who had declined promotion if it meant working longer hours.

The decisions have been calculated to mean an average of £2800 a year as being sacrificed to enjoy a family life.

It also found 42% of the 4.5 million who share childcare with a partner have changed job to allow a reduction in working hours after they had started a family.

One in 10 had changed to part-time work and one in 20 refused a pay rise to allow them to be at home more.

The financial firm which commissioned the research said financial implications are often a barrier to families who want to alter their childcare and working patterns.

Lindsay Sinclair, chief executive of ING Direct, said: "Modern men are choosing to put their careers on hold in order to balance work with bringing up their children. For many this means reducing working hours and taking an average salary cut of around £2800, in order to spend more time "holding the baby".

"However, finances are stopping some new dads from sharing this responsibility. One in six are the main household breadwinner and one in 10 wished they had savings in place to make it easier for them to change their working patterns. Yet, with financial planning new dads needn't miss out."

While women have for many years complained of the difficulties of juggling work with childcare, more men are now also looking for a family friendly workplace.

More than one in three (34%) said their managers were unsupportive of their childcare responsibilities once any paternity leave is over.

One in 20 said they had been excluded from important business decisions and 9% said they faced complaints over not working late and 5% said they had been overlooked for promotion.

Official government statistics show Britain has 5.8 million fathers who have dependent children.

Fathers are entitled to two weeks' statutory paternity pay at £112 a week.

New measures in the Work and Families Act which came into force in April this year include giving employed fathers the right to up to 26 weeks unpaid additional paternity leave, some of which could be paid if the mother returns to work.