ALAN Milburn's decision to swap his post as Health Secretary for more quality family time showed the stresses of juggling a high-flying career a kids can be equally as demanding for dads. On the eve of Father's Day JENNY SCOTT spoke to three dads with busy jobs and young families to ask: "How do they do it?"

FOR Simon Jones, the day starts early. At about 6.45am he and his wife Karen have to be up to rouse their four children and get them out of the house to their respective schools and childminders.

"It only takes something little to throw a spanner in the works," said Simon, 35, from Blackburn. "If somebody can't find a shoe, it seems like the whole world is coming to an end."

Simon's schedule is tight. He has to combine his jobs, as divisional secretary of the NUT and executive member for Lancashire and the Isle of Man, with his role as father of Edward, six, Arthur, five, Elisabeth, three and one-year-old Frank.

While his work can take him to two-day meetings in London and week-long conferences over Easter, his family life can prove equally demanding, especially during the hectic school run.

"Karen, who teaches at Intack Primary, has to be in school for 7.30am," he said. "I do breakfast for the kids and take the younger ones to the childminder's.

"I then drop the older ones off at school for 8.15am, before I drive to whatever meetings I've got. No two days are the same."

It's when this routine gets blown off course that Simon's work and home life can be thrown into conflict.

He said: "If one of the children is ill, or the childminder is ill, it throws things into complete turmoil.

"Sometimes I can rearrange meetings, but if I'm defending a member and his job is at stake then Karen has to take time off. It doesn't happen often, but it's stressful when it does.

"One solution we've talked about is that Karen's mother could move in with us and help with babysitting and the domestic side."

In the evenings, Simon prepares tea for his family, in between attending union meetings and fielding members' phone calls, while Karen puts the children to bed, before settling down to a long night of marking schoolbooks.

Simon said: "I have total empathy with Alan Milburn. This issue of balancing work and home life is really important and needs to be taken seriously. At present, I don't think enough attention is paid to the fathers' side of things.

"When I tell people I've got four kids, a lot of them ask how my wife manages - never how I manage.

"The only way we get through the day is by working as a team."

LIKE Simon, Robin Fitzpatrick, 33, believes in spending time with his family.

And, in a job that can take him away from his home in Priory Grange, Darwen, up to two evenings a week, the time he manages to spend with his two daughters becomes all the more important.

Robin's job as a software programmer for AC Computers in Wigan means he often has to travel throughout the North West.

"It's like the old adage absence makes the heart grow fonder," said Robin, father of two-year-old Lucy and one-month-old Emma.

"The time we spend together at weekends is really important. We go on trips to the zoo, or the park, or just do normal family things. Anything really, as long as we're together.

The time spent with his daughters is precious, but often not enough.

"I get in from work at about 6pm. By that stage my wife Rowena, who is on maternity leave, will have started bathing them.

"Whatever time I get in, I get stuck in and help out. But time's a bit short in the evenings.

"While Emma's up at all hours, I maybe get to see Lucy for ten minutes in the morning and ten minutes in the evening, which is hard."

In addition to all this, Robin can spend two weekends a month away from home with the Territorial Army.

He said: "I've been involved with the TA since I was 17.

"We find the balance of my job and home life manageable as things stand, but if ever it didn't work then something would have to go."

JACK Straw has revealed how weekend visits to watch Blackburn Rovers play football helped keep him in touch with is children and give his hard-working wife a rest. But in the wake of Mr Milburn's resignation, he admitted he didn't believe he could have held his current job as foreign secretary if son William and daughter Charlotte had been as young as the former health secretary's six and 12-year-old children.

The Blackburn MP said: "When I entered the Cabinet as Home Secretary William was 16 and Charlotte 14. I don't believe I could have been in the Cabinet, certainly not Foreign Secretary, if the children had been as young as Alan's.

"Eighteen years in opposition had a silver lining. Although I was in the Shadow Cabinet for ten years - and it was hard work - it was nothing like as difficult and time consuming as being a Cabinet minister.

"I was able to see the children every day. My wife is a civil servant in Whitehall and we bought a house in the cheapest area within the sound of the Division Bell so I could get to Parliament for a vote.

"The old Parliamentary hours of starting later were actually quite family friendly. I was able to take the children to school every morning. I don't think I missed a single assembly.

"But having the constituency in Blackburn helped. It became a regular family ritual to take the children to go and see Blackburn Rovers. I think I took William to his first match at Ewood Park when he was six.

"As time went on first William and then Charlotte started to catch the train up to Blackburn on a Friday night after school and then I would pick them up after a day of doing surgeries.

"Blackburn Rovers played a very important part in my parenting of the children."

Referring to his son William's run-in with the Daily Mirror and the police over supplying an undercover reporter with cannabis when in the sixth form when he was Home Secretary, Mr Straw said: "It didn't always go smoothly as that incident shows. But we came through it."