When a New York father, being obliging, will help (3,4)
I believe the answer is:
any time
'new york father being obliging will help' is the definition.
I don't know anything about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.
'when a' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'a' could be 'an' and 'an' is located in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for any time that I've seen before include "Whenever you like" , "at one's disposal night and day" .)