As we celebrate and appreciate Father’s Day this month, we want to discuss the importance of the role of fatherhood in the lives of children and explore its significant influence on a child’s health, development, and happiness. Read on to learn more.
The Positive Role of Fatherhood
Studies show that present, nurturing, and interactive fathers raise children with higher IQs, more advanced cognitive and language abilities, and decreased rates of behavioral issues and delinquency.
Due to these positive effects, children with healthy, involved fathers tend to have more success in their other relationships, academic performance, and professional endeavors.
Children of Absent or Abusive Fathers
Children and adolescents with absent, abusive, or negligent fathers not only carry the emotional baggage of growing up fatherless: They’re also at a significantly higher risk for:
- Living in poverty
- Developing mental illness
- Exhibiting overall maladaptive traits
- Displaying delinquent behaviors
- Communication and language deficiencies
- Becoming pregnant during teenage years
Some evidence suggests that an unhealthy or chaotic relationship between parents during a mother’s pregnancy, including a father’s negative feelings about his future role, can cause complications throughout gestational development and during birth. These harmful outcomes can remain into adulthood; especially when children and adolescents don’t receive the help they need.
Absentee or neglectful parenting negatively affects the parent as well. When a father is absent in a child’s life, he misses out on experiencing one of life’s most incredible blessings: fulfilling the role of fatherhood. Fathers in these kinds of situations can often feel ill-equipped to help their children or effectively deal with their own trauma.
We highly encourage fathers to seek to connect with their children and bond with them. Children are highly intuitive and empathetic, and generally understand that perfection in parenting isn’t attainable. A dad doing his best to be a dad is often good enough. No parent is perfect (except our heavenly One).
Support the Children’s Home for Father’s Day
Many of our residents who come to live with us at the Children’s Home know what it’s like to have a complicated or non-existent relationship with their biological fathers. We’ve often punctuated this month with our Father to the Fatherless campaign, which seeks to emphasize the Lord as our perfect, heavenly Father for all time. If your heart is called to minister to these children spending Father’s Day without an earthly father, please consider donating to the Alabama Free Will Baptist Children’s Home.
Your gifts equip our loving, nurturing, and qualified house parents to give refuge to children and adolescents from complicated family dynamics and turbulent living situations—and provide them with a stable home environment and resources like counseling, which can help with their self esteem, self worth, and emotional development.
If you’d like to learn more about our ministry, we encourage you to peruse our catalog of blogs and further resources.