Women tend to experience substantial drops in their labor income after their first child is born, while men do not. Do such relative ``child penalties’’ exist in the political arena? Using rich administrative from Norway and an event-study methodology, we find that women drop out of local politics to a larger extent than men after their first child is born. Parenthood also seems to have a differential long-term effect of women and men's political careers, which may explain why women, and especially women with children, are underrepresented at higher levels of the political hierarchy.