Fatherhood
-
- January
- 16
Interesting USA Today Snapshot segment in Friday’s edition. This is one of those info boxes that USA Today has on the front page with statistics or poll results. This one is on the importance of fatherhood:
91% of fathers polled agreed that there is a father absence crisis in the USA.
81% agreed that men perform better as fathers when they are married to the mothers of their children.
67% agreed that the government should do more to help and support fathers.
Thoughts, questions or commentary?
This entry was posted
on Tuesday, January 16th, 2007 at 12:19 pm by Jorge Fitz-Gibbon.
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There are many issues. The biggest I consistently see is that the mother does it all. Which is not the case anymore. But the perception is still there…
First off no one parent should be doing it all unless its the only parent,obviously.
The Govt never recognizes the father and its the truth. How many times has custody been lost to a mother who shouldnt have custody? Or worse off the mother dies and the father loses a custody battle to her parents?
The fact that it happens is bad precedent. because the law is all about precedence.
All in all, most fathers are not ogres nor do we ignore our kids.
steps off soap box
Steve;
Soap boxes are welcome and encouraged!
The thing I took from the stats is that it was a poll of fathers. I think that makes it interesting. I do believe most single fathers I know would agree that things would be better with both parents in the home. But I think most single mothers would say the same. I’m not sure on the government help responses, because that one struck me as the most intriguing answer.
As for the father absence crisit in the US, it’s hard to think otherwise. Statistically, fathers leave more often, and that is a crying shame. There was a time where that was perceived as an urban problem. I don’t think that uniquely the case any longer, and hasn’t been for some years. Personally, I can’t even get my head around a parent—mother or father—not wanting to be involved.
I have found that many times; the parent didnt want to be a parent to begin with and still doesnt. It’s a slippery slope, my issue has always been the government bias towards the mother.
I think the responses make a lot of sense.
It’s unfortunate that our public policy is geared, not toward preventing family breakdown, but to dealing with the effects of it. Necessarily quite inadequately I might add, because nothing can substitute for a strong family when raising kids.
As opposed to government helping and supporting fathers, I’d even be happy with government not actively undermining fathers, as they are currently doing. Fathers need to be recognized as parents with equal rights and responsibilities to mothers. Those responsibilities don’t always have to take the same form—it’s not all about just who cleans the house and washes the laundry. I think there are offsetting assymetries between the contributions of mothers and fathers, and we need to look at the whole picture.