The Importance of a Father
This week’s discussion was the importance of fathers and the critical role they play in the home and family, and how our understanding of their importance to family life is being lost over time. The change in how families work and experience has changed over the years.
Fathers play a bigger role in families than is often discussed or fully understood. Fatherhood is not often thought of as supremely important, and as time moves on our comprehension of the supreme importance of fatherhood is decreasing. Fathers are role models for their sons. They show them through example by what they say and do in differing circumstances how to be the best they can be. The example of a father can show young men how to treat women in a respectful way. The presence of a father in the home gives their sons something to expire to grow up to be like.
Fathers are not only important for their sons, but for their daughters as well. If a father is in the home daughters can feel supported, loved, and safe. While when a father is not in the home, girls are more likely to have promiscuous relations with men. Part of that relationship provides those feelings of being close to a male because they did not have a father who was a part of their life.
A father simply living with their family is not the same as the father being an active member of their children’s lives. Being active means that they are seeking opportunities to talk with, listen to, and provide support for their children. They also have fun with their sons and daughters. They will normally do more rough play and physical activities with their sons and daughters though this is not something every father will do in the same amounts. My father was not that big into wrestling with us, though when I and my siblings were younger and smaller we had some pretty fun tickle attacks. However, for my family playing with my dad usually meant that we go out to a park and play sports. When my family lived two doors down from a park, with a good amount of green space, almost every Saturday we would go and play soccer, baseball, frisbee, and other different sports and games.
Every father will be different and do things their own way, but as they are actively a part of their children’s lives they make a big impact on their children. This is most easily given in a nuclear (normal) family, but that is not to say that it is impossible for those needs to be met in the other family arrangements. Despite that in a nuclear family where the father is present is the best place for that to happen.
Another thing that I will briefly touch on that was discussed is that the shift in family work has changed the amount of interaction that occurs between family members. In times when the family work was a farm or blacksmith shop etc… every day the whole family would work together and laugh. That gave them opportunities to share things with each other that they may otherwise not have shared. (This is one of the readings for class prep this week on this topic and I really enjoyed it. https://magazine.byu.edu/article/family-work/)
I love my father and am grateful for everything that he has done for me in my life. I can’t even begin to imagine him not being a part of my life. I hope that as time moves forward we will not forget the prominent importance that fathers have in our lives.
Fathers play a bigger role in families than is often discussed or fully understood. Fatherhood is not often thought of as supremely important, and as time moves on our comprehension of the supreme importance of fatherhood is decreasing. Fathers are role models for their sons. They show them through example by what they say and do in differing circumstances how to be the best they can be. The example of a father can show young men how to treat women in a respectful way. The presence of a father in the home gives their sons something to expire to grow up to be like.
Fathers are not only important for their sons, but for their daughters as well. If a father is in the home daughters can feel supported, loved, and safe. While when a father is not in the home, girls are more likely to have promiscuous relations with men. Part of that relationship provides those feelings of being close to a male because they did not have a father who was a part of their life.
A father simply living with their family is not the same as the father being an active member of their children’s lives. Being active means that they are seeking opportunities to talk with, listen to, and provide support for their children. They also have fun with their sons and daughters. They will normally do more rough play and physical activities with their sons and daughters though this is not something every father will do in the same amounts. My father was not that big into wrestling with us, though when I and my siblings were younger and smaller we had some pretty fun tickle attacks. However, for my family playing with my dad usually meant that we go out to a park and play sports. When my family lived two doors down from a park, with a good amount of green space, almost every Saturday we would go and play soccer, baseball, frisbee, and other different sports and games.
Every father will be different and do things their own way, but as they are actively a part of their children’s lives they make a big impact on their children. This is most easily given in a nuclear (normal) family, but that is not to say that it is impossible for those needs to be met in the other family arrangements. Despite that in a nuclear family where the father is present is the best place for that to happen.
Another thing that I will briefly touch on that was discussed is that the shift in family work has changed the amount of interaction that occurs between family members. In times when the family work was a farm or blacksmith shop etc… every day the whole family would work together and laugh. That gave them opportunities to share things with each other that they may otherwise not have shared. (This is one of the readings for class prep this week on this topic and I really enjoyed it. https://magazine.byu.edu/article/family-work/)
I love my father and am grateful for everything that he has done for me in my life. I can’t even begin to imagine him not being a part of my life. I hope that as time moves forward we will not forget the prominent importance that fathers have in our lives.
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