Parenting, Who Is More Important, Mom Or Dad?

Parenting -Who is more Important, Mom or Dad?

U. S. Divorce statistics from the U.S. Census bureau, the National Center for Health Statistics and Americans for divorce reform report Fatherless homes account for:

• 63% of youth suicides
• 90% of homelessness/run away
• 85% of children with behavior problems
• 71% of high school drop-outs
• 85% of youths in prison
• 50% of teen mothers

Another Study reports:

Children reared in fatherless homes are more than twice as likely to become male adolescent delinquents or teen mothers, according to a significant new study by two economists at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The Texas Department of Corrections reports:

85% of Youths in Prison Grew Up in Fatherless Home

All of these studies seem to indicate the problems arise from the absence of the father in the household. My contention is children need both parents. Perhaps these issues may be due to the breakdown of the family structure; and the absence of either parent could be a contributing factor. These assumptions are not really supported by the statistics because the U.S. Census bureau and U.S. Department of Commerce also report that 85% of custodial parents are women. Which means in single parent households where the father is custodial parent, that figure is only 15%. These statistics and the way they are reported imply the Father is more important to the household than the Mother.

More studies should be directed to the impact of divorce on children and how to keep a pseudo family structure in place for children of divorced parents. Some remedial actions that could be taken include; courts encouraging joint custody arrangements, mandatory parenting classes for both Mother and Father in divorce cases and general public education of parenting responsibilities.