Step-family Talk

The last couple of days, I’ve been on a rant about what I feel society has lost with the breakdown of traditional values and conceptions of what it means to be a man. Today I want to focus on why it’s important for children to be a father and tomorrow I will look at defining a father.

I have found several good articles on the impact of a father in the household. Check out this article on the Importance of Fathers I’d like to point out a couple areas of this paper.

The first shows the accelerating trend of children living in mother-only homes. In 1950 about one out of every 20 children lived in a mother-only home. By 1998 nearly 1 out of every 4 children lived in a mother-only home. Prior to 1950 the main reason for a mother-only home was attributed to death. Now the main cause is unwed motherhood or divorce.

The second shows just how much of an impact having both parents in the household has on a child:

Adolescents who live some time of their childhood in a single-parent household, which most often are mother-only families, are twice as likely to drop out of school, twice as likely to have a child before age 20 and one and a half times as likely to be idle–out of school and out of work–in their late teens and early young adult years. (These risk factors can be moderated when single-parent families have increased income, close ties with family, friends, and community, and when children have a positive relationship with the non-resident parent as well as the resident parent.)

The second article I want to point out is from the Child Welfare Gateway and is called the Importance of a Father in the Healthy Development of Children I’d like to highlight a couple areas of importance. Children with highly involved children are more likely to develop effective social skills, are 43% more likely to achieve mainly A’s in school, are better able to cope with stress in a school setting, the rough play usually associated with fathers actually helps children manage aggressive behavior.

Later in the article, there is reference to the protection a father offers their children. Fathers act as a barrier against maltreatment. Sixty-four percent of all maltreatment cases are perpetrated by the mother. The major factor in these cases is that the mother is raising the children are their own. When a father steps into the picture and shares in the responsibilities of raising children the mother’s stress level decreases. The probability of a child being maltreated in a two-parent home is nearly half that of a child living in a single parent home.

Fathers, if you think your job isn’t important look again. Just by being part of the family you increase your children’s chances of getting a good education, learning socially responsible behavior, having a quality relationship of their own, and grow up safely without the threat of maltreatment. If improving the odds of a good life for your child isn’t enough, let me also add this. Active fathers have better overall health and reduce mom’s level of stress, which in turn helps make for a better marriage.