Fatherhood is a complex, challenging, yet rewarding experience. If you’re a father or a father figure, relax this Father’s Day with this meditation script for fathers.
Monday Meditation: A Meditation Script for Fathers
Lessons I Learned From My Father About Parenting
Now that I have kids of my own, I have come to appreciate the delicate balance of discipline and affection that my father had to maintain in handling us, his own children. Fathers have their special parenting challenges that are different from mothers.
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Millennial Dads: How To Strengthen The Bond Between You And Your Child
Millennial dads came when the world wasn’t looking. Yes, at their current age range, most millennials have become parents to Generation Alpha kids. While mothers of any generation take naturally to child-rearing and bonding (we carried them in our wombs for nine months, after all,) dads, in general, do not have this inherent ability.
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Best Fatherhood Quotes: A Tribute to All the Dads Out There
Father’s Day is the special day of the year when all of us can show our love and appreciation to our dads. While I believe that we should do this all year round (just like with Mother’s Day), it does not hurt to designate a specific date to pay tribute to our fathers – more than usual. After all, it is quite a feat to balance fatherhood and a career, and even the simplest gesture of appreciation will make our fathers’ day.
This year, Father’s Day falls on June 21, so there’s ample time to plan something special for your fathers. Whether it’s a material gift, an experience, or extending an olive branch, it doesn’t matter. One thing is for sure: your dad will greatly appreciate the gesture.
In anticipation of Father’s Day, I’ve gathered some of the most heartwarming and best fatherhood quotes. While some may not be able to relate to them, now is a good time as any to reflect on your relationship with your dad. You never know what might come out of it.
1. I believe that what we become depends on what our fathers teach us at odd moments, when they aren’t trying to teach us. We are formed by little scraps of wisdom. – Umberto Eco, Foucault’s Pendulum
2. The monsters are gone.”
“Really?” Doubtful.
“I killed the monsters. That’s what fathers do.”
– Fiona Wallace
3. I cannot think of any need in childhood as strong as the need for a father’s protection. – Sigmund Freud quotes
4. My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me. – Jim Valvano
5. My dear father; my dear friend; the best and wisest man I ever knew, who taught me many lessons and showed me many things as we went together along the country by-ways. – Unknown
6. Certain is it that there is no kind of affection so purely angelic as of a father to a daughter. In love to our wives there is desire; to our sons, ambition; but to our daughters there is something which there are no words to express. – Joseph Addison
7. My father didn’t tell me how to live; he lived, and let me watch him do it. – Clarence Budington Kelland
8. When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry. – Unknown
9. A dad is someone who wants to catch you before you fall but instead picks you up, brushes you off, and lets you try again. – Nishan Panwar
10. I’ve had a hard life, but my hardships are nothing against the hardships that my father went through in order to get me to where I started. – Bartrand Hubbard
11. A working definition of fathering might be this: fathering is the act of guiding a child to behave in ways that lead to the child’s becoming a secure child in full, thus increasing his or her chances of being happy and fruitful as a young adult. – Clyde Edgerton
12. My dad is my best friend, my father, and my boss. When I do something that is exciting and he likes it, it feels three times as good as you can imagine. – David Lauren
13. When my father didn’t have my hand….he had my back. – Linda Poindexter
14. The older I get, the smarter my father seems to get. – Tim Russert
15. No matter how stronger and harder a man appears to the outside world in the life’s challenges, but he still remains the weakest and softest inside in his heart to fulfill the demands and desires of his children. – Anuj Somany
All you dads out there, we salute you.
More on family:
How to Accept a Gay Friend or Family Member
Why You Shouldn’t Be An Absent Father And How To Avoid Being One
Why You Shouldn’t Be An Absent Father And How To Avoid Being One
The typical father of earlier generations was seen as the breadwinner and the disciplinarian. He may be an absent father in the sense that he worked all day and only came home at night. This is true both in the Eastern and Western hemispheres. The traditional father figure in China, for example, is one who can be trusted to provide for the family’s needs and the new-age dad who gets involved in child-rearing is seen by older Chinese men as weak and effeminate.
But times have changed. Modern women choose to have children without marrying the fathers. The absent father is now defined as those who are not married to the mothers of their kids and those who are divorced. Divorce too is accepted and allowed in almost all countries. In other words, we are talking about fathers who are physically absent from the home on a regular basis.
While unhealthy relationships should not be continued only for the sake of the children nor should pregnancy be a reason for a couple to marry, it is also true that kids who grow up without a father around generally are more problematic than those who have a good father figure to guide them.
The Negative Effects of an Absent Father on Children
They have more likely to have emotional and behavioral problems.
They are more aggressive than children in two-parent households and are three times more likely to have problems with friendships. They are prone to exhibit more antisocial behavior.
Boys are more hostile towards adults and other children and destructive of property.
They are at higher risk for depression and low self-esteem, and are more irresponsible.
They do not do as well in school as children who are living with both parents.
Children who grow up without a father figure fare worse in tests on reading, mathematics and thinking skills. They have difficulty with teacher-student relationships and get poorer grades. But children living with biological fathers, stepfathers and single fathers do better in academics than fatherless kids.
They have an increased risk for getting involved in crimes and getting themselves in jail.
A study of juvenile offenders showed that most of them live in mother-only households. Teenagers also have a 25% higher chance of committing offenses.
They are more likely to become parents themselves at an early age and have higher chances for divorce.
Girls who grow up without a father figure have a higher chance of teen pregnancy and early marriage while boys become fathers by the age of 22.
They are more likely to start smoking and drinking alcohol earlier than children in two-parent households. They are also more likely to do drugs.
Children who grow up without their fathers start smoking at 15 and 16 years old, drinking alcoholic beverages at 16 and 18 years old, and twice as likely to have tried drugs at 15 years of age.
They have more health problems.
Children from one-parent homes suffer more from obesity, asthma, headaches, gastrointestinal problems and have lower immune systems than their peers living with both mother and father.
They are more likely to be poorer in their adult lives.
Children without fathers are poorer as adults. They have less employment opportunities because of lower educational achievements and poorer psychosocial skills.
How to Solve the Father Absence Issue
Unless legal issues are involved, the solution to father absence is easier. Fathers who are not living with the mothers of their children because they are not married or are divorced from their wives should reach out and develop a good relationship with the mothers so that they are allowed more involvement in raising their child. In divorce cases, shared parenting should be the goal and the child’s needs should be the priority so that parent absence is minimized as much as possible and children grow up in homes that mimic a two-parent arrangement.
