I think that the class discussion was a little anti-father the other day. I can't say I know what single mothers go through, but I can imagine that their struggles are hard. I would like to see a documentary done on single fathers, I wonder if their struggles can compare? I know we talked about how men have better job security and better pay so they might not have money problems. I think they would have the same struggles about balancing their personal life and their child's needs. I think parents who aren't even single have that issue. I was wondering how many single father's there actually were so i googled and found this link
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/000776.html . According to this article (based on 1998 stats) there were 3.1 million children living with their fathers.
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/facts_for_features_special_editions/000793.html About 77% of the fathers had a high school degree and 11% a bachelors. Two out of every ten were poor and Half lived in rental housing. Based on the facts I think fathers have it a little easier economically. In Eboni Baugh's class we talked about how single fathers face issues with being accepted at their child's school: for example no one thinks it's normal for a father to join the PTA so he may face issues there. This may be a small issue compared to the one's in the video. On the same site I got stats for the men they had stats for women and there are 9.8 million single mothers and I think that was the point Dr. Smith made the number of women is overwhelming and so many live in poverty.
4 comments:
I totally agree with you about the world recognizing those "fathers" who do take care of their children and make sure that they have what they need. There are statistics showing that there are fathers who are actively involved in their child's life such as the PTA and other physical activities, but are looked down upon for being a caring father. There is also statistics showing an increase in single father's over the past years. In regards, to the discussion in class, I think no one should have incentives, like Brandy stated, when they are taking care of their responsibilities. That goes for men and women. I think that parents or soon to be mothers and fathers should be aware of the responsiblity of having a child. It all goes back to educating and informing people of the pros and cons of raising a child in a single parent, or family environment. I also agree with you that there should be a componenet in Life Management Skills (LMS) that involves marriage and divorce including the pros and cons.
I agree with you BJ, and like the point you brought up in class, Where is the positive reinforcement? Being a single parent is tiring emotionally and physically, if we are constantly degrading fathers and making them feel like anything they do is not enough, then they will be discouaged. Everyone talks about how bad fathers are, but we never recognize the fathers that stick around, to be single fathers or just to be apart of their kids lives.
There are no incentitives or even support networks for those fathers. This discourages fathers from stepping up to raise thier children alone.
Policy makers need to step up, and thats the whole point i was trying to make in discussion the other day.
WOW BJ very insightful. I agree with your points. We do tend to focus on the negative with regard to fathers.
It's important to look at the other side of the coin, so to speak; thank you for speaking out on the importance of dads in children's lives. I especially appreciate your bringing in other material, BJ. Also, your point about financial concerns being such an issue for single mothers. I believe that some of the issues in class were about men deserting their children, and not being responsible for them. Family life can be so complicated! I would be really interested in what the content of your video would be.
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