THE FATHERLESS GENERATION

It's hard to be a good father.  

All of the praises being sung today for those men striving to be there for their children are justly earned.

Fatherlessness didn't strike me as an event.  It was just my life.

Fifteen million U.S. children, or 1 in 3, live without a father.  

In 1960 just 11 percent of American children lived in homes without fathers.

 Children in father-absent homes are almost four times more likely to be poor. 

In 2011, 12 percent of children in married-couple families were living in poverty, 

compared to 44 percent of children in mother-only families.

 The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services states, 

“Fatherless children are at a dramatically greater risk of drug and alcohol abuse.”

 The statistical data showed that a 1% increase in the proportion of single-parent families in a neighborhood

 is associated with a 3% increase in an adolescent’s level of violence. 

• 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes (US Dept. Of Health/Census) – 5 times the average.

• 90% of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes – 32 times the average.

• 85% of all children who show behavior disorders come from fatherless homes – 20 times the average.  (Center for Disease Control)

• 80% of rapists with anger problems come from fatherless homes –14 times the average.  (Justice & Behavior, Vol 14, p. 403-26)

• 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes – 9 times the average.  (National Principals Association Report)

  Good fathers do three things: 

Provide, Nurture and Guide.  

But that is hard.  It is easier to just leave.

As I wrote yesterday, we are becoming the detached, impersonal culture ... the Me Generation.  

What do we know about such men? Not much. They are apparently quite common.

 Society condemns them. Yet fixing the blame never fixes the problem.

 Our society wants men to accept obligations of fatherhood, but they are not respected for doing so. 

In the media, 

fathers are mostly portrayed as clueless, hapless buffoons - or, occasionally, as violent abusers.

Just look at how far the father of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD fell in the "sequel" GO SET A WATCHMAN

WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

Whether a father is apart from his child as a result of divorce, non-marital childbirth or job relocation, his absence impacts the child and our society beyond what we can observe at the moment. - See more at: http://goodmenproject.com/families/the-critical-impact-of-non-residential-fathers-on-their-daughters-kcon/#sthash.e6mhcPLB.dpuf