Fathers...No Longer Just a Luxury

Throughout human history the fathers role in the family has been mainly for hunting and gathering purposes and for protection. Women have always been known as the one to take care of the children and father's interacted when discipline was needed. As time went on even up to the modern times fathers were still the ones most likely to have jobs where they work long hours while the wife tends to the home. Those days are finally beginning to change. Society is now beginning to see the importance of an involved fathers in his children's lives. A noted sociologist, Dr. David Popenoe, is one of the pioneers of the relatively young field of research into fathers and fatherhood. "Fathers are far more than just 'second adults' in the home," he says. "Involved fathers bring positive benefits to their children that no other is as likely to bring. Fathers have a direct impact on the well being of their children.
The facts are children with  involved, caring fathers simply have better educational outcomes. A number of studies show that fathers who are involved, nurturing, and playful with their infants have children with higher IQ's, as well as better linguistic and cognitive capacities. How wonderful is it as fathers to know that all we have to do is love and be involved in our kids life to make an impact on their learning capabilities? Society is starting to show some changing in the mindset of fathers in the home. Canada has instituted a law for new parents that allows for up to 52 weeks for paternity leave. The great thing about this is that it can be split amongst both parents. They allow the father to get some time to bond with the newborn as well which is greatly overlooked in this country.
Fathers need to understand how important their presence is in their kids lives. Children are greatly affected by the absence of one of their parents. Too often fathers think its ok to leave their children because they have their mother and that is a terrible attitude to have. Mothers are wonderful and have a very important role but that by no means makes it better for the child to only have their mother. Fathers needs to stay actively involved in educating their kids, playing with their kids, and being someone that they can talk too about anything. We here at Dajs Daily stress this point so much because it means so much to each of us. We both did not grow up with fathers and have seen first hand the affects of a missing father. This is something we carry with us each day so that we don't make the same mistake with our children.