The article is devoted to the study of gatekeeping practices, namely the barriers raised by mothers to limit the access to children, as perceived by the divorced young fathers. Parental gatekeeping is defined as a dynamic and reciprocal process of creating barriers, establishing control, bringing accusations that prevent from the development of common rules for interaction and the achievement of parental cooperation in the interests of the child during and after the divorce. The authors conclude that the identity of the divorced young fathers is influenced by the so-called “wounded masculinity”. The phenomenon captures painful experiences of hegemonic masculinity, the crisis of male identity due to a loss in the struggle for a dominant position in the family and manifests itself through the feeling of insolvency, the fear of being seen as weak and emotionally wounded resulting in resentful feelings and aggression. The authors present the results of a study based on the interviews with 18 divorced young father