In Germany, the discourse about the incomerelated parental leave policy introduced in 2007 and its legitimisation strongly depends on its effects in the context of certain goals. However, the question of which goals the parental leave policy actually has, is answered controversially in the arenas of politics, media and science. This article shows the characteristics of the different discourses about the parental leave policy in these arenas and the mechanisms behind their interaction. Empirically, frequency analyses and valency analyses of newspapers between 2004 and 2012 are carried out which are combined with content analyses of documents of the German Federal Parliament. The analyses confirm that the different goals can be categorised into five groups. The results show that the definition of goals is the key for understanding the discourses and the public judgement of the parental leave policy. OLS regressions show that the main factors for a positive or negative disposition in the media are the initial reason for the article and the number of considered goals. Hence, for politicians, a communication strategy stressing all five goals is promising.