Eleventh Post

This past week in class we discussed Fathers and Finances. One of the more memorable parts of the lesson was writing a paper in which we expressed our views on fatherhood and what makes it important. I personally grew up in a home where my father was physically there, but not emotionally present. My mom took on the heavy majority of the parental responsibilities and at times it even seemed like I was living in a single parent home. My father chose to pick his career over his family and there have been permanent effects on our small family from it. While it was important for my father to make money to be able to support our family, it was even more important for him to be there as a father to provide fatherly love and the example that only a dad can set for his children (especially for me, his only son).

It seems like fathers are getting a bad wrap in society today a lot of the time. While there certainly are scumbags who will help create a life and then not help raise it, not all men are like that. There are millions of men out there who, just like me, can't wait to be a father and raise children to the best of their abilities! While mothers are indeed important, I wouldn't go as far as to say that they are MORE important than fathers. I believe that both parents provide irreplaceable examples and are unique emotional supports for children. I also believe that a single father can do just as well as a single mother in raising a child (and possibly better in some cases). While a nuclear traditional family is obviously preferred, fathers should never be looked down upon as inferior or unnecessary.

The other part of the lesson for this week was finances. In most American families, the man is the bread winner and holds a full-time job to be able to make enough money to provide for and support his family. It used to be that the woman would stay in the home and rear the children while the husband worked, but that dynamic has changed quite a bit over the years in our nation. Women are wanting more and more to get out of the home and work or start careers of their own. More women are graduating from college with degrees and desires to make their own money and do their own thing. While it might make sense financially for a struggling young family to have both parents out of the home and in the workplace, it was interesting to find out that having both parents working typically doesn't bring in that much more money to the family income. The question that parents need to ask themselves is "is it worth having the mother (or father, in some cases) out of the home and away from our child/children for X amount of money"? I believe that in most cases, the answer will be a resounding no. I personally don't believe that any amount of money is worth sacrificing parts of a parent-child relationship.