The next Senedd election is a "huge opportunity" to make the Welsh Parliament a more family-friendly place to work, according to equality campaigners.
The comments follow calls from a Senedd committee for more "predictable" sitting hours and a creche service to be provided in Cardiff Bay.
Its report said the moves would encourage more people with caring responsibilities to stand for election.
However, a Conservative Member of the Senedd (MS) with three young daughters said the current arrangements were "perfectly fine".
The Future Senedd Committee has been looking at how the Welsh Parliament should operate after next May's vote, when the number of MSs will increase from 60 to 96.
In its report the committee said "every effort should be made to make finish times and the pattern of business as predictable as possible".
It said the "uncertainty" that currently exists "creates a barrier for some members, or prospective members, due to its impact on their ability to fulfil caring, or other, responsibilities".
The cross-party group said the Senedd should also consider deleting the rule that business in the chamber must begin at 13:30 to allow MSs to set a new working pattern after the next election.
Plaid Cymru MS for South Wales Central and committee member Heledd Fychan has a 12-year-old son.
"Like anyone who works full-time as a parent, it's always a juggle, and definitely being a politician isn't a family-friendly role," she said.
"You're expected to be available 24 hours a day. If something arises people expect you to be there and it's your job to be there."
Fychan said the introduction of hybrid working since Covid had made a "huge difference" but that the Senedd was not family-friendly "to the degrees it could be".
"We have to have a creche here. If we say that we're a modern parliament that's the bare minimum."
Both the UK and Scottish parliaments provide a creche.
