Chapter #7 Fathers

Information from:  Successful Marriages and Families:  Chapter 13, Honor Thy Father, Brotherson, Sean E. 

The 5 P's of Fathering

To Partner

To partner in fathering is to accept the responsibility of rearing a child in cooperation with others, particularly the child's mother and to assist, give support in doing the work of nurturing, love, and guidance in a child's upbringing." (p142)

To Be Present 

"A fundamental principle of fathering is meeting the need for the longing for home.  This is a universal aspect of human history and psychology.  It is a longing for presence, for parental connection, for companionship in family living." (p144)

To Provide

D&C 75:28, "Verily I say unto you, that every man who is obliged to provide for his own family, let him provide, and he shall in nowise lose his crown."

• "To provide in fathering is to assume the stewardship of meeting children's needs and offering opportunities for their development, as well as dedicating one's time, energy, and resources for the benefit of the next generation." (p145) 

To Protect 

Fathers have the job of preparing children  to independently take on adult challenges in the world outside the family.  The context of preparing a child and instilling a child with needed skills and knowledge sets up yet another fundamental principle of fathering, to protect and equip him or her to both avoid and manage life challenges." (p146)

To Preside

"By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness." 

 (p 141)  Family Proclamation

• Fathers are directed to take the responsibility of spiritual leadership
• A father's responsibility to preside is his first and foremost duty.
• Fathers are to guide in love and righteousness, appropriately.

The following information is compiled from a thesis 

"Father Absence and It's Effect on Daughters by Lisa Mancini 2010 

http://library.wcsu.edu/dspace/bitstream/0/527/1/Final+Thesis.pdf

Fathers are Important

• Fatherless children are twice as likely to drop out of school as their classmates who live with two parents. 
• Children whose fathers are absent consistently score lower than the norm in reading and math tests.
• 75% of teen suicides occur in single-parent families. 
• 
Children who live apart from their fathers experience more accidents and a higher rate of chronic asthma, headaches, and speech defects. 
• 80% of the adolescents in psychiatric hospitals come from fatherless homes.

• Daughters of single parents are 164% more likely to become pregnant before marriage, In a comparison of girls raised in homes with both parents,
• 53% more likely to marry as teenagers, and 
• 92% more likely to divorce their husbands. 
• Rape and sexual abuse is 900% more prevalent in the absence of a biological father.  ”most of them committed by stepfathers or mother´s boyfriends"
• AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) infections is highest in female teen without fathers in the home. Many are dating boys and having sex at 12 or 13 years old with multiple partners older than they, 19 or 20 and many of them use drugs. They are looking to fill that father void. The studies have confirmed they come from poor families, and they haven´t a father growing up with them”.