My husband isn't the father of my child but he deserves to be honored on Father's Day. He has been more like a dad than my daughter's biological father ever was.
We are a part of an ever growing number of blended families in this country. According to statistics, over fifty percent of US familieis are re-married or re-coupled and 1300 new stepfamilies are forming every day.
Here are some other interesting statistics from the National Fatherhood Initiative:
•Children with involved, loving fathers are significantly more likely to do well in school, have healthy self-esteem, exhibit empathy and pro-social behavior, and avoid high-risk behaviors such as drug use, truancy, and criminal activity compared to children who have uninvolved fathers.
•Studies on parent-child relationships and child wellbeing show that father love is an important factor in predicting the social, emotional, and cognitive development and functioning of children and young adults.
•24 million children (34 percent) live absent their biological father.
•Nearly 20 million children (27 percent) live in single-parent homes.
•43 percent of first marriages dissolve within fifteen years; about 60 percent of divorcing couples have children; and approximately one million children each year experience the divorce of their parents.
•Fathers who live with their children are more likely to have a close, enduring relationship with their children than those who do not.
•About 40 percent of children in father-absent homes have not seen their father at all during the past year; 26 percent of absent fathers live in a different state than their children; and 50 percent of children living absent their father have never set foot in their father's home.
•Children who live absent their biological fathers are, on average, at least two to three times more likely to be poor, to use drugs, to experience educational, health, emotional and behavioral problems, to be victims of child abuse, and to engage in criminal behavior than their peers who live with their married, biological (or adoptive) parents.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Passing the Torch from Baby Boomers to Millennials to Gen Z
Whether baby boomers can accept it or not, a changing of the guard has taken place with millennials and the up and coming Gen Z generations...
-
On Valentine's Day I received an unexpected---but pleasant surprise when the Producer of NBC's My Carolina Today called to ask me to... -
1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay them. 2. K...
-
Last weekend, a snowstorm swept across North Carolina. We got about six inches. Schools were closed and city services came to a halt for a...
2 comments:
Good informational post, Bev. And I agree that sometimes stepfathers are better daddy's and role models than the biological fathers.
And I must add a note that there are many, many fathers who are not in their childrens' lives but who desperately want to be. The mother has completely alienated the child from the father and they finally reach the point where there is no contact at all. In those cases, Father's Day is a very sad for those men who love their children and cannot see them.
I like this post too and I SO concur with Pat's comment as well.
Some mother's use their children to lash out at the father. The only one to suffer, is the kid. I know from first hand experience - seeing it happen in my family - it's SO, so sad.
Post a Comment