Do you the impact that fathers have on the way children end up behaving? There are significant benefits to having a father in the home and present in the raising of children. When a father is absent, both boys and girls are impacted. By the time girls are 13, with no father, they tend to be more sexually promiscuous and have low self-esteem. Boys tend to also have low self-esteem and get involved in drugs or crimes. Did you know that almost every single school shooter did not grow up with a father? These are all things that children should not be getting involved in, especially at such a young age.
Over 39% of children are born into fatherless homes. This is worrying because as more children are being born into fatherless homes, more daughters are going to be having sex young, therefore continuing the pattern. Young boys are going to be caught up in drugs and there will be a cycle of this going on. It is important to be aware of the numbers and the facts that play a role in this. Being unaware that over 39% of children are born without a father will lead many to believe that there is not an issue, yet there is. Children need that father figure in their lives. Fathers are the ones that come home from work and the child knows now they can wrestle and play rougher than they can with mom. This is where they are able to learn a lot of skills a mother does not have.
Now I want to transition a little bit to finances. In homes where the parents are together, it is often thought that they both need to work to get by. This is something that may seem logical, but if you really lay all of the numbers out you can easily see that having a one income household is oftentimes better than dual income homes when there are children involved. There was an accountant who did a little experiment. He asked a couple who both work to help him. The father of this family earns about $42,000 a year and the wife earns $21,000. What the accountant did next was ask for expenses they had now that the mother was working. She had to buy another car to get to work. She had to pay for gas to get to work. She had to buy a new wardrobe to wear to work. The family was eating out almost daily because she didn’t have time to make meals, and they were paying for afterschool care for all 3 of their children. WOW, quite a bit of money being spent in order for her to have a job. The accountant did some math and came up with the amount of money they were making now that both mom and dad were working. The number he came up with was $40,000. This is less money that the father was making when he was the only one working. As you can see, adding her job to their family actually was costing them money rather than bringing in more money. There are situations when a single mother needs to work and that is understandable, but I highly recommend looking at all of your income and expenses to really decide if having mom and dad both working is really worth it. The kids will be better off having their mother in the home as rather than spending their days with a babysitter.
I hope you feel how important it is to be in a family where a father is present, and that dual income households are not necessarily the most financially friendly thing to do! Think about it and make the best decision for you and your family!
Best of Family Relations 