Fatherlessness

I’ve never been able to imagine what it would be like to be raised by a single parent or homosexual parents, even though I have grown up with many friends that have done so. None of my friends ever complained, but I had often felt bad for them, thinking that it must be difficult living with their parental situation. I grew up with a wonderful mother and father and I didn’t think that any parental situation without a mother or father could be as good. Throughout the years, after hearing many different perspectives on the issue, my views have changed. Although it would be very different living without a father or without a mother, I think that it could be okay.
The Critical Thinking Application: Are Fathers Essential to Children’s Well-being? from the textbook Psychology themes & Variations is a interesting article that gives many facts and perspectives and made me think about the issue in a new way. David Blankenhorn (1995) gives a very different view on this topic in the Critical Thinking Application article, than I have; “fatherlessness is the most harmful demographic trend of this generation. It is the leading cause of declining child well-being in our society”. The idea that fatherlessness is the worst trend in our generation’s society is a far-fetched theory.
Apart from growing up with friends that have only one parent and friends with homosexual parents, I have also grown up with a couple friends that had far worse parental situations. It is much more important to NOT have a father that: gets drunk all the time and that beats his family, or is a workaholic and never shows signs of affection and never spends time with his children, than it is to have a father at all. It doesn’t matter how many, or what sex the parents are, as long as there are good people around to love, take care of and provide quality male and female role models for the children.
A father can be very good to have around because he provides the children with a male role model. My father has taught me many things such as: how to fish, shot a gun, cut and stack firewood, do math problems, and many other thing that females often aren’t as skilled at as males are. Also, fathers often bring in an income or do chores around the house, which helps reduce stress in the family. Homosexual parents can be capable of doing all of these things, but many of them don’t. Studies have been done, which are discussed in the Critical Thinking Application, that show children without fathers have more developmental problems and get into bad situations during adolescence more than children with fathers. I believe that this happens because the children become stressed when they have a stressed single parent, they don’t have a good male role model, or they have to experience their parents going though the rough process of divorce.
Children just need to have a non-stressful environment and people around to provide quality role models, love and take care of them; it doesn’t matter if their parents are male or female. My friend that grew up with lesbian parents and my friends that grew up single parents, have all have grown up to be great people. I believe that having a traditional family with a father may be the best way to raise children, but it is certainly not the only way that can work well.