This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Paul Sullivan — a former New York Times columnist and founder of The Company of Dads — about his experience with paternity leave and his reaction to professor and podcaster Scott Galloway's comments that he wasn't sure there should be mandatory paternity leave and that dads are a "waste of time" in the first few months of a child's life. Galloway recently told Business Insider , "The comments on paternity leave were meant to be funny. They