Fatherhood

... to a Child There is no question that a child without a father in the home has much greater challenges in their lives than those with a father. Here are some statistics I have seen ... According to the US Census Bureau, 24 million children in America (one in three) live in homes without fathers. Educational Attainment: Kids living in single-parent homes or in step-families report lower educational expectations on the part of their parents, less parental monitoring of school work, and less overall social supervision than children from intact families. (N.M. Astore and S. McLanahan, American Sociological Review , No. 56 (1991) Achievement: Children from low-income, two-parent families outperform students from high-income, single-parent homes. Almost twice as many high achievers come from two-parent homes as one-parent homes. ( One-Parent Families and Their Children , Charles F. Kettering Foundation, 1990). High School Dropouts: 71% of all high school dropouts come from...

Unable to speak yet, Patrick defines what he wants in various ways: pointing, grunting, grabbing, yelling, screaming, and recently dropping to the floor and crying or standing in front of me and bouncing with a smile on his face. Most of these behaviors are pretty clear and easy to manage. Often, he gets to play with what he wants or where he wants, barring any unsafe behavior ... on the stove top whether food is cooking or not, under the sink where we store chemicals, near the top of the stairs (unsupervised) ... you get the idea. We love that he has a variety of interests and wants to explore. It's pretty cool to watch him taking all the pots and pans from under the counter and trying to carry them to the front door ... he eventually gets tired using both arms to hold the weight and drags the pot or pan behind him ... very cool! The first few tantrums were kind of scary ... dropping to the floor, face down, and then tears that then raged into something much scarier. Rec...