ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, June 11, 1996 TAG: 9606110024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
MONDAY'S Commentary page featured an article by Wade Horn, director of the National Fatherhood Initiative. It was titled ``Fathers, your children need you.''
Not much argument there, especially with Fathers Day approaching.
But suppose the headline read, ``Children, your fathers need you.'' Would that suggest the article was about aging fathers, possibly feeble, possibly lonely, who are looking to their grown children for more attention or support? Maybe so.
It might, however, be about the flip side of the ``children need fathers'' lament: Children and single mothers aren't the only ones hurt when fathers turn their backs on their families. The missing fathers, too, suffer from what they are missing.
This is one of the themes in a new book by David Popenoe, ``Life Without Father: Compelling New Evidence that Fatherhood and Marriage are Indispensable for the Good of Children and Society.''
Popenoe, a sociologist at Rutgers University, makes the point that ``family life is a considerable civilizing force for men,'' and the absence of family life puts many men on a slippery slope.
While it's well-known, for instance, that a father's absence from the home can sink children into poverty, the father also may sink financially. And, while absent fathers are often cited as a causative factor in increased juvenile crime, a father, absent the stability of family life, may also be more likely to turn to crime.
Writes Popenoe: Men often ``will give up certain deviant or socially irresponsible behavior only when they have children'' for whom they want to set a good example and also want to provide for responsibly. Or, as Newsweek columnist Robert J. Samuelson recently wrote: ``Fatherhood is a powerful antidote to self-centeredness.''
Does this mean that all men should marry, that all men should have children or that only fathers who live under the same roof as their children will behave responsibly for the sake of their kids and society? Of course not. It's simply a reminder that fatherhood offers benefits and blessings that can make its burdens as worthwhile for men as for their progeny.
LENGTH: Short : 48 linesby CNB