Sunday, June 20, 2010

Happy Fathers' Day!

Happy Fathers' Day to all you loving, devoted, responsible men who've taken on the awesome task of successfully raising the next generation. I commend today's fathers even more than mothers because in our feminist society being a dad has become an often thankless job.

Today, in the name of gender equality, everything to do with men has been subjected to calculated status degradation. Fatherhood has come under especially intense attack. Modern dads often find their position and role confusing and unstable. Their necessity to their children is belittled but if they behave according to that expectation they're denounced as "deadbeats". And when they perform their parental duties splendidly, today's dads still get the proverbial short end of the stick. In divorce, for instance, good fathers will usually lose custody to good mothers simply because of their gender. A dad has to prove that the mother is unfit in order to have any real hope of gaining full custody of his children. He is definitely NOT assumed to be the better parent just because he's the dad.

And then there's the "bad dads" propaganda. Movies, books, sensational news stories, school "safety" programs, etc., all reenforcing the notion that fathers are far and away the parents most likely to abuse children. But that's not true. When abuse, especially sexual abuse, occurs in families studies show that stepfathers and live-in boyfriends are the usual perpertrators. Having the biological father in the home is one of the main predictors of children's domestic safety. In other words, real fathers don't abuse their kids, but that's not what gets hyped.

Considering how much the deck is stacked against dads today, it's remarkable so many men enthusiastically become them. That's why good fathers in our modern society deserve recognition and praise more than good mothers. They are truly fighting an uphill battle to succeed in the hardest and most crucial job there is: raising children. So I recognize, praise, and salute YOU, the committed patriarchs whose lives are your kids. Don't let a thankless, hostile society discourage you. Be proud of yourselves and confident of the irreplacable role you play in your children's lives. You are truly doing God's work and don't you ever forget it!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the high praise my friend. I am a step dad, and though I am in the statistic of being more of an abuser, I assure you that I love my step kids like they were my own....and would never abuse them. Take that Nancy Pelosi and the movie industry....*hee hee*