No Daddy At Home

Shocked! Georgians are still on their heels from the news of a thirteen-year-old child arrested for murder. Little has leaked out about this youngster's home life, but it opens the door to go data diving and explore how families are affected when there is no father at home.

The National Father Initiative in Philadelphia has books of data on the effect of absent fathers on the children at home.

We've been on this soapbox before, but the highlights are worth another look.

Unmarried women and girls who give birth without the father present in their child's life are doing their child a deep disservice.

It doesn't matter how women “feel” about raising children as an unmarried mother or whether the mother herself turned out well growing up in a home without a father.

Many unmarried women have children, some have several, but there is no benefit to the child to be raised without the father.

Economically a family can get by without a father in the house. Propped up by government dollars for this and that, Uncle Sam becomes the man of the house.

I recall a picture in a newspaper article that showed three generations of unmarried females of the same family who were either pregnant or with a baby living in the same government apartment.

Males who grew up with absent fathers are more likely to become absent fathers themselves.

Children who grow up without their father in the home are 47% more likely to live in poverty. This is over four times the rate for children living in married couple families.

The Census Bureau reports that 19.5 million children, more than 1 in 4, live without a father in the home.

A child raised in a father-absent home are more likely to commit a crime and go to prison and are twice as likely to drop out of school.

I asked someone who works in the juvenile court why judges don't require fathers to stand beside their children in court.

“Nobody knows who the father is or where he is,” was her reply. Really?

Among high school dropouts, 71% are fatherless. Fatherless children have more trouble academically, scoring poorly on tests of reading, math, and thinking skills, according to Edward Kruk, PhD.

Dr. Patrick Fagan of the Heritage Foundation wrote that “over the last thirty years, the rise in violent crime parallels the rise of families abandoned by the fathers.”

According to the US Department of Health & Human Services, children from fatherless homes account for 63% of youth suicides, 71% of teenage pregnancy, 90% of homeless and runaway children, and 70% of juveniles in state operated institutions.

Can't we do better?

joenphillips@yahoo.com