The present study seeks to understand the meanings that men attribute to the practice of parental care with children and adolescents within the family, based on field research carried out at the Municipal Hospital Jesus, a public health unit, with care for children and adolescents, located in the North Zone of Rio de Janeiro. The method used was qualitative research, with semi-structured interviews with ten men present in the health unit accompanying children and adolescents in consultations in the ambulatory sector, with the purpose of identifying their conceptions and practices about the care for these subjects. For the analysis of empirical data, the method of interpretation of meanings was used, based on hermeneutic-dialectic principles, in dialogue with studies on the practice of care and family organizations, gender relations and roles in families, men and masculinities and insertion of men in caring for children and adolescents, with the exercise of parenting as the focus. The results of the research reveal that, although still fewer in number than women, men have increasingly participated in care within the family, attributing meanings to the male parental exercise that are beyond the role of provider.