Fathers, the Power of One

The subject of fatherless homes and the important role a father has in a child's life has been written about many times and the views vary. You can find many opinions on how important a father is, most by so called experts. Sure enough there are many, many homes where there is no father and the home is a happy one, the children are well adjusted and they do great academically. The children grow and venture into adulthood as well adjusted persons. Watching a favorite show, A Current Affair tonight, it had a story about 3 young boys whose behaviors were out of control and the mothers were struggling to cope. One of those children came from a fatherless home. This also includes fathers who live at home but may as well be a piece of the furniture. There can be no doubt that the ideal is a home where both parents raise their children but this is not an ideal world and there is thousands of homes where there is only one parent doing the bulk of the child rearing. This post is about the importance of fathers and how it can affect children who do not have an active father in their lives or a responsible male role model/s. Who is to blame here, women who chose to have children as a single mother, fathers who run off as they can't handle respsonsiblilities, or the government who makes it easy for these fatherless families to pop up like mushrooms in a poop infested cow paddock. Mothers and fathers alike need to re-examine the plight of children before embarking on an insane idea that fathers are not necessary in a child's life. The child seen tonight who had no active father in his home, was angry, he often became violent, acted out at school and was abusive towards his mother. It was very sad to see how much this particular boy was hurting and how his mother was at her wits end as to how to deal with it. Whilst a number of fathers are not great role models for their offspring and would have no positive influence on the kids, there is a whole lot more that would. A boy needs the authoritarian figure of a male. Mothers can do this to a point but they cannot replace or take the place of a father. What irritates the hell out of me most is homes where the father is not allowed to have input, is not given the chance to interact with his children or chooses to not become involved. It can be a hellish job bringing up children alone and quite often when things go awry, the finger of blame gets pointed in the mothers direction. A responsible father can show the children how to treat women, how to become resourceful, a mother can do all these as a balanced view but it is still from a female perspective. Most mothers do their utmost to rear their children where they are seen as valued members of society. Is is noted by US expert Dr Wade Horn that many of the prisoners inside jails come from single parent families, he also stated:

Children from such homes tended to under-perform in education, and many of them lived in poverty, and were themselves likely to end up in poverty.

Children need both their mother and their father if they were to grow up a balanced healthy adult. While children from a single parent family can grow up healthy and balanced, the probability of this happening in a typical two parent family was much higher.

I agree. Fathers and just how important they are is very much under-rated. This post is not from an academic point of view , I have no uni degree but one does not need a degree to know what is important and what DOES matter in the life of a child. Books and degrees are great in theory but they are no match for the insight and knowledge you gain as a real life parent.