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Writer's pictureAngela Larimer

The Importance of Having a Father in a Child’s Life


Divorce offers opportunities to make a fresh start and improve your life. If you want to learn

more on The Importance of Having a Father in a Child’s Life, contact Attorney Angela Larimer at 773-370-0600 or angela@larimerlawllc.com

While divorce can be very taxing on children and the parents, it is important to remember that children do in fact need their parents if the parents are mentally healthy. If the father of the children wants to be an active involved parent to his children it is important to allow him to do so. Children need their fathers and benefit from having a father in their life. It’s important to remember that not all men choose to be actively involved parents but men who want to be active parents and fathers, one cannot stress this enough…it is essential to allow them to be involved in their children’s lives.


Children who have involved fathers in their lives generally have better outcomes for their futures. According to a Pew Research Study conducted by Cambridge: Harvard University Press, children are 80% less likely to spend time in jail and 75% less likely to have a teen pregnancy. Additionally, according to the study, 40% are more likely to earn mostly A’s in school, 60% less likely to be expelled or suspended from school, and nearly 50% less likely to repeat a grade. Father’s who are involved in their children’s lives and nurture and engage with them are more likely to enhance their child’s cognitive skills and development.


A father plays an essential role for a child’s stability and discipline, for daughters and sons alike. If it is possible to have a father in their child’s life, it is important for them to establish a connection and relationship with their children.


Fathers Set the Bar for Relationships with Others and Themselves


With respect to raising sons, while there are a plethora of strong, hard working, single mothers who raise their boys to be bright young men, if a father is willing to be an engaged father he should be permitted to do so. Why? Young men need a role model. Young men need a sense of direction. Young men need to learn about manhood and who better than to learn it from their own father? Boys tend to seek approval from their fathers at a young age. When a father is absent, young boys and young men may look to other male role models to set the standard for how to behave in the world. It may seem like common sense but sometimes when we are wrapped up in our own thoughts and emotions we can fail to think logically when it comes to the importance of a parent’s influence on their child. Obviously, if their father is not a committed father, then it is important to find other alternatives for them to experience male-kinships and positive bonds. Enrolling them into sports or other activities where they can have a sense of male comradery is always a good alternative. Having them spend time with male family members such as step-fathers, uncles and grandfathers is necessary and highly beneficial.


With respect to raising daughters, as stated earlier, there are a plethora of strong, hard working, single mothers who raise their daughters to be bright young women too. Once again, if a father is willing to be an engaged father, then he should be permitted to do so. Daughters need their fathers for different reasons. A daughter's first love is with their father. She learns what good and bad qualities are in a man, based on her father’s actions (or a male figure who is in the early years of her life). While mother’s can teach their daughter’s to be strong independent women, father’s can help them heal from heartbreak and father’s can help them build their self-esteem. Young girls and even grown women depend on their father’s for emotional support and a sense of security and stability.

At the end of the day, families are strengthened by supporting fathers.


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