Father's

        This week in class we talked about the importance of the father mainly, but also to the mother. We focused on Father's this week in class because in past and today's culture father's have been thought to not be as important as mother's in child rearing. There's the quote "a women needs a man like a fish needs a bike". Now I'm not here to debate if a women needs a man to survive on her own, because I'm sure many women are capable of that. I'm here to talk about the importance and influence of a father on children. For starters I'll retell a story that has the message of specialization in a marriage with kids.

         Most houses have two incomes in order to be financially sound's but there is a downside to it. There was a study done in he 80's or 90's that looked at couples who had 2 disposable incomes AND have children. So for this story this household has two disposable incomes, so let's say the Dad is making $42,000 yearly working 45 hours, and Mom making $21,000 working 35 hours. So officially this household made $63,000, but in reality it was much less than that. The accountant took into account all their expenses from the mother working and added up all the prices. They had now additional expenses from the mother working, for example they now had to pay for a child care because there was no one home with the kid, new/more transportation so both people can go to work (buy a 2nd new car), buying professional clothes, and eating out more often. All those expenses taken into consideration reduced the additional 21,000 by a lot, to the point that it's actually pretty shocking. So the accountant looked at their expenses and showed that the actual income was now $40,500 instead of $63,000. Their income was 1500 less than it was before. That isn’t actually that unusual when this study was taken and might not be too different today, but there are still valid things like having to pay for additional transportation, childcare, eating out more. etc. Now this story isn't to say that there can only be one bread winner and the other has to stay home, it's just to show that having someone home and another at work is not only beneficial to childcare but also is beneficial financially. That's not always the case and pretty much only applies to couples who do have children. It's a different story if you don't have children.

        So the benefits of father's in children's lives are pretty overshadowed in my opinion by society, because it's a common belief that women's child care is superior to any child care that would come from a man. This statement is both true and false. Women are great care takers, better than most men when children are young. They are the ones who care for and nurture the children, that's no surprise right there, the mother is more important when the child is young. It's not until the child becomes a bit older when the father becomes more important and becomes critical in a child's success. There are numerous studies that show that and in are supported by many well known people like Obama that said something alone the lines of African Americans are more affected by being in a fatherless home than society's view on them. Father's are unique compared to mothers. Mother's turn their children towards then and protect them from the outside world but the father's turn them to the outside world and prepare them for it instead of coddling them. Those roles aren't contradictory they are complimentary. It's good to have both in a child's life and having a father's presence in a home really benefits the children. An extreme beneficially example is that 13 year old girls are less likely to be sexually active if they have a father at home and a less extreme example is boys are more likely to be academically successful if the father is at home.

    Simply put, father's are very beneficial and needed in a home to help with the life style, happiness, and success of the of everyone in the house (including the dog).